


watching Iron Man 1

by orphan_account



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Gen, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Freeform, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Marvel Universe, Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie), Spider-Man: Homecoming (Movie), The Avengers (2012) - Freeform, Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Thor: The Dark World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:06:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26148394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: First up is Iron Man 1, since I'm going in order of release instead of chronological.
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie & Loki (Marvel), Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Gamora & Nebula (Marvel), Gamora/Peter Quill, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Loki & Nebula (Marvel), Loki & Thor (Marvel), Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Shuri, Wanda Maximoff/Vision
Comments: 15
Kudos: 213





	1. The Gathering

**Author's Note:**

> Random information, could be important, could not be important but please read. [Font key: Bold=movie. Italic Bold= someone saying something in a foreign language in the movie, regular= reaction to the movie. Bold, Italic and Underlined= authors note.)

"Ow, what the hell was that?" Bruce groaned when he hit the ground. He had just fallen from the ceiling. He looked over to see Steve in a similar position, then looked around the room to see quite a few people in his same position. After a couple minutes the large group of people began to wake. 

"who the Hell are you guys?" Asked a Green woman. The group that was standing next to her all had confused looks on their faces. "I could say the same to you miss." Steve replied. 

"Oh, You're all awake." Said a faceless character. "And you're probably wondering why you're all here, aren't you?" 

"No, this is totally normal, happens everyday. Of course we're wondering where we are!" Tony yelled to the ceiling. He was standing with 3 people. The woman he was with grabbed his arm to try and clam him. 

"You are in a movie theater, I have brought you all here so that you can watch your pasts, presents and futures, and hopefully stop a large event that is to come in the future. In the meantime, If you would introduce yourselves and state what year you are from." The voice said.

"Uh, Okay, I'll go first." Steve said. "I'm Steve rogers, I'm from the year 2012." 

"I'm Bruce banner. Or the Hulk if I'm angry." Bruce said. 

"I am Thor son of Odin!" Thor announced.

"I am Loki of Asgard." Loki revived a set of glares from the avengers. 

"Clint Barton. Hawkeye"

"Natasha Romanoff. Black Widow"

"Nick fury, Director of shield."

"Maria Hill."

"Agent Phil Coulson. 2014." Some of the avengers looked shocked. "Wait two years from now... you just died." Clint said. Coulson looked to Fury for help. "Well I'm not dead." "I can see that." "Ok. That's all you need to know then."

"Tony Stark." 

"Pepper Potts... why am I here actually?" Pepper asked, feeling confused. She wasn't a part of shield or a superhero. 

"You and Happy are here because you hold important roles in these films, but Happy's doesn't come 'till later." The voice said. Pepper shrugged but still looked confused. 

"I'm James Rhodes but I guess ya'll could call me Rhodey."

"Uh, I'm Happy." People looked confused at the name but they went with it. 

"I'm Peter Quill. 2015, along with the rest of my team."

"Gamora." Said the Green lady. 

"Names Rocket." Said a talking raccoon.

"Honestly up until this exact second I thought you were a Build-a-Bear." Tony said. 

"I am Groot." said a small talking tree. 

"I am Nebula, I am from 2018." Said a blue cyborg looking girl.

"My name is Mantis." A yellow alien said. "I am from the year 2015."

"I am Drax." Said a shirtless blue man. 

"Are you guys aliens?" Thor asked. He received a series of nods from the group, all except peter.

"I'm Scott Lang, I'm from 2015 as well." 

"I'm Wanda Maximoff and this is my brother Pietro, we are from the year 2015 as well."

"I'm Peter Parker. I'm from 2017 and so are my friends."

"I'm Michelle, My friends call me MJ."

"Hey, I'm Ned."

"I'm T'challa, I am from 2017 and this is my little sister Shuri." T'Challa says and points to a girl standing next to him.

"I'm Dr Stephen Strange. 2018."

"I'm James Barnes, from 2017." Bucky said. "Y-Your alive? I saw you die, how are you still here?" Steve asked. "All of that will be revealed at a later time." The woman in the walls said. 

"Ok now that that's settled we have some movies to watch." The voice said. 'Iron Man 1' appeared on the screen.

"Who's Iron man?" Gamora asked. 

"That would be me." Tony said, pointing to himself.


	2. I was a hostage once

**Back in Black by AC/DC opens the scene. Writing on the screen says Kunar Province, Afghanistan. A hand is shown holding a glass of scotch.**

"Five bucks says that's Stark" Said Clint to Natasha.

**The screen pans out to show that it is Tony.**

**"I feel like you're driving me to court Marshal, this is crazy what did I do?" He asks. "I feel like you're gonna pull over and snuff me, what, are you not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!" He continued.**

"You should be more respectful to soldiers, Stark." Steve said.

**"We can talk sir." The soldier in the front seat replied.**

**"Oh I see, so it's personal?" Tony asked.**

**"No, you intimidate them." Said a female soldier, who was also the driver.**

"you do have that effect on people." Pepper said. Tony smirked in reply.

"A female worrier!" Thor said excitedly.

**"Good God you're a woman. I honestly... I couldn't have called that. I mean I'd apologize, but isn't that kind of what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."**

"Nice save." Rhodey whispered into Tony's ear.

**"I'm an airman." She replied.**

**"You have, actually, excellent bone structure there, I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" He said. The soldiers laugh.**

"It's a little weird." Maria said.

**"Come on, its okay laugh." Tony encouraged.**

**"Sir I have a question to ask." The soldier in the seat in front of Tony turned around.**

**"Yes please." Tony gestured toward him.**

**"Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last years Maxim cover models?" He asked.**

"Really?" Scott asked. 

**"That is an excellent question. Yes and no, March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately the Christmas cover was twins. Anything else?** "

"You couldn't keep it in your pants, could you?" Clint said.

**The soldier in the seat next to him raises his hand. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?"**

"You should be more respectful to soldiers." Steve repeated, irritated.

**"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?" He asked.**

**"Yes it is very cool." The soldier next to Tony pulls out a camera and passes it to the soldier in the front seat. "I don't want to see this on your Myspace page." Tony jokes.**

"Whats Myspace?" Peter Parker asked. The guardians also looked confused as did Loki, Thor and Steve.

"Its like Facebook but for people born in the '90s." Bruce answered. Some people still looked confused but dropped the question.

**The soldier next to Tony holds up a peace sign. "Please no gang signs." Tony said. The soldier put his hand down. "No, throw it up, I'm kidding." The soldier put his hand back up. "Yeah, peace, I love peace, I'd be out of a job with peace."**

Wanda glared. Of course, the Tony she'd met had changed, but this was not him.

"Not anymore." Tony muttered, looking anywhere but at the screen.

**The soldier in the front seat was having trouble with the camera. "Come on, hurry up, just click it, don't change any settings." As the picture was about to be taken, something hit and blew up the vehicle in front of them. Gunshots and such were heard and hitting the side of their vehicle.**

Everyone in the room flinched. Well everyone except Fury, Hill, Natasha, Clint and Tony, who knew what was coming. Pepper grabbed Tony's arm.

**"What's going on?!" Tony yelled, panicking a little.**

**"Contact left!" A soldier shouted.**

**"What have we got?" Tony Tried. The female soldier stepped out of the car, but was shot soon after.**

**"Jimmy, stay with stark." The soldier in the front said to the one next to Tony. He went to get out but was shot as well.**

**"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy yelled and got out.**

"Listen to your orders! Stay there!" Steve yelled. Bucky gave him a look that said 'now was not the time to say that'

**"Wait wait wait wait wait! Give me a gun!" Tony yelled. "Stay Here!" Jimmy yelled at him. Jimmy was then shot down. Bullets pierced the side of the Humvee. Tony heard ringing in his ears. Disoriented, he exited the vehicle.**

"What are you doing stay there!" Steve yelled at Tony.

"Steve." Bucky consoled. "Now is not the time."

**Tony ran for cover behind a large boulder. He pulled out his phone and tried to call for help when a bomb landed a few feet away from him. He looked at it and noticed that it said 'stark industries. He yelled and tried to move away before the bomb exploded but was too slow. The bomb exploded and Tony was sent flying back.**

"You got blown up by a bomb! literately with your name on it!" Scott said.

**"Whoa!" Tony yelled as he hit the ground. His senses were dulled and he went to check the damage. He ripped open his shirt to see he was bleeding through his bulletproof vest.**

"That actually happened to you?" Quill asked. Tony nodded sharply, the experience now fresh in his mind again. He had hoped the movie wouldn't show this.

Wanda looked over at him with worry. If you had told her years ago that she would be worried for Tony Stark's life, she probably would have laughed in your face, but things change and so do people.

Pepper was still clinging onto Tony for dear life, as if he would suddenly disappear. She knew some of what happened to him in Afghanistan but nothing could have prepared her for seeing it with her own two eyes.

**The scene changed. The screen read Las Vegas 36 hours earlier. "Tony Stark. Visionary, Genius, American Patriot."**

Steve scoffed lowly at that. Stark? An American Patriot?

**"Even from an early age, the son of legendary weapons developer, Howard Stark quickly stole the spotlight with his unique mind"**

Steve winced. 'What happened Howard?'

 **"At age four, he built his first circuit board. At age six, his first engine. And at 17, he graduated summa cum laude from MIT." Pictures of Tony when he was young flashed on the screen.** **Magazine covers and Newspaper articles alike.**

"You were an adorable child." Pepper smiled.

"wait, really? 17?" Clint asked.

"Well I am a genius, birdbrain I don't just say that for no reason." Tony said. People rolled their eyes, but some were reluctantly impressed.

**"Then, the passing on a titan." A newspaper that read 'Howard and Maria Stark Dead' Flashed on screen.**

**"Howard Stark's lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder."**

Tony's expression darkened at the mention of Obadiah.

**"Until, at age 21, the prodigal son returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries. With the keys to the kingdom, Tony ushers in a new era for his father's legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, satellite targeting. Today, Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe." The voice over finished.**

**Then The screen shows Rhodey who appears to be giving a speech.**

"You look different Rhodey." Strange commented. "I do, don't I?" Rhodey replied.

 **"As liaison to Stark Industries, I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot. He is my friend and he is my great mentor. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year's Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark. Tony?" Rhodey said**.

"You weren't there, were you?" Natasha asked with a knowing smirk.

"Uh, no I was not." Tony Replied. The original 6 avengers and Pepper shook their heads, of course.

**Rhodey looked through the crowd, trying to spot tony. Only to find that he wasn't there. Obadiah Looked up and shook his head. Then he walked to the stage. "Thank you colonel" He spoke.**

"Colonel? you're in the army?" Steve asked.

"Air force." Rhodey corrected **.**

**"Thanks for the save." Rhodey said, then walked away. "This is beautiful, Thank you, Thank you all very much." Obadiah spoke.**

Tony, Pepper, Rhodey and Coulson all glared at the screen.

**"This is wonderful. Well, I'm not Tony Stark." Obadiah said. The audience laughed. "But if I were Tony I would tell you how honored I feel and what a joy it is to receive this very prestigious award. Tony, you know... the best thing about Tony is also the worst thing. He's always working."**

"Well, he's not wrong." Bruce commented.

**The scene changed to show Tony at the casino. "Work it! Come on!." He yelled. Then he turned to the dark haired woman next to him. "We should just stay 'till morning." He said, she smirked.**

**Then Rhodey appeared next to him. "You are unbelievable." He said.**

**"Oh no, did they rope you into this?" Tony asked with faux concern.**

**"Nobody roped me into anything."**

"Yes they did." Rhodey yelled with a glare at Tony.

**"I'm so sorry." Tony said.**

**"But they told me that if I presented you with an award, that you'd be deeply honored." Rhodey continued, ignoring the apology.**

**"Of course I'd be deeply honored and its you, that's great. so when do we do it?" Tony said.**

**"Its right here. here you go." Rhodey said and passed him the award.**

**"There it is. That was easy. I'm so sorry." Tony tried apologizing again. "Yeah, it's okay." Rhodey said.**

"I was actually sorry, you know." Tony said.

**"Wow! Would you look at that? That's something else. I don't have any of those floating around" Tony spoke and set the award sown on the table. "We're gonna let it ride." He then turned back to the dark haired girl. "Give me a little something- something will you?" He asked. She seductively blew on the dice Tony held in his hand. He raised his hand to Rhodey. "Okay, you too." He said.**

**"I don't blow on a mans dice." Rhodey said.**

**"Come on Honeybear!" Tony complained. Rhodey hits the dice out of Tony's hand. "There it is. Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes rolls! And..." Tony spoke.**

**"Two craps, line away." The dealer spoke.**

a few people winced.

**"That's what happens." Rhodey said.**

**"Worse things have happened. I think we're gonna be fine. Color me up, William." Tony said, walking away.**

**"This is where I exit."**

**"Tomorrow, Don't be late."**

**"Yeah, you can count on it."**

**"I'm serious."**

**"I know, I know... render on to ceaser that which is ceaser's, here you go." Tony gave the award to a man in a Costume**.

"Dude, did you just give sway an Apogee award?" Scott asked.

Tony nodded. "I didn't really care back then."

"You were late, weren't you?" Gamora asked.

"He left me standing there for THREE HOURS" Rhodey complained.

"You're still on that?" Tony asked.

**" Mr. Stark! Excuse me, Mr. Stark! Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair magazine. Can I ask you a couple of questions?" A blond reporter appeared on screen.**

**"she's cute." Happy said.**

**"she's alright?" Tony asked.**

That statement resulted in glares from all the women in the room. "You only talk to reporters if they are cute?" Loki asked, but received no answer.

**"Hi." Tony said when he turned around.**

**"Hi" She responded.**

**"Yeah, okay, go." Tony said.**

**"Its okay." She asked. "You've been called the Da' Vivci of our time, what do you say to that?" She asked, a smile on her face.**

**"Absolutely ridiculous, I don't paint." Was Tony's response.**

"Can't be serious for one minute, can you?" Fury said.

**"And what do you say to your other nickname, 'The Merchant of Death?" The reporter said, the smile wiped off of her face.**

**"That's not bad."**

Tony looked down in shame.

**"Let me guess... Berkeley?" Tony tried to guess her college.**

**"Brown, actually." She responded.**

**"Well, Ms. Brown, it's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals." Tony said.**

"That's the best you could come up with?" Rhodey asked.

**"Rehearse that much?" Christine asked.**

**"Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime." Tony joked.**

**"I can see that." she shot back.**

**"I'd like to show you first hand." Tony said**.

"That was smooth." Clint spoke, before getting wacked in the head by Natasha.

**"All I want is a serious answer." She spoke.**

"Good luck." Natasha said.

**"Okay, here's serious. My old man had a philosophy, 'Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy.'" Tony spoke.**

"Not a very good philosophy if you ask me." Steve said.

**"That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks." Christine said.**

**"My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero." Tony spoke, getting agitated.**

**"And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering." Christine pushed.**

"Wow, she's really trying to piss you off isn't she?" Rhodey asked.

**Tony tears his glasses off. "Tell me do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding, honey." Tony spoke, angry now.**

Off screen Tony winced as he saw himself lose his composure.

**"You ever lose an hour of sleep in your life?" She asked.**

"So many." Tony said, quietly to himself.

**"I'm prepared to lose a few with you." Tony spoke.**

"why was that also smooth?" Scott asked.

**The scene changes to Tony and Christine making out on a bed. They fall off of the bed and Tony laughs.**

"Ew." Muttered Peter and the rest of the teenagers. (Wanda, MJ, Ned, Shuri and Pietro) agreed with him. they did not need to see that.

**Cut to the next morning. Christine is lying Face down on the bed. Lower half covered with the bed sheets, upper half uncovered. "Good morning. It's 7:00 a.m. The weather in Malibu is 72 degrees with scattered clouds. The surf conditions are fair with waist-to-shoulder high lines. High tide will be at 10:52 a.m." JARVIS spoke.**

**while he said this Christine got up, put on a shirt and looked out the window. The screen pans out to show a large white house overlooking the ocean. The screen read Malibu, California.**

"I am groot." Groot said. "What did he say?" Bruce asked. "He said that Tony has a nice house." Thor responded, much to everyone's shock.

"When did you learn to speak Groot?" Gamora asked.

"They taught it on Asgard, it was an elective." Thor responded. 

**The scene now shows Christine walking around Tony's house wearing nothing but a shirt and her underwear. "Tony. Hey Tony?" She asked.** **She walked over to a wall and touched something.**

 **"You are not authorized to access this area." JARVIS spoke. Christine flinched away**.

"Who is talking to her?" Scott asked. "That's JARVIS he is my AI."

**Pepper then appeared behind her. She had her hair up and was wearing a smart suit. She was carrying Christine's clothes. "That's JARVIS, he runs the house."**

"Hi Pepper!" Tony, Natasha, Happy and Rhodey all yelled at the screen.

**"I've got your clothes here. They've been dry-cleaned and pressed, and there's a car waiting for you outside that will take you anywhere you'd like to go." Pepper said.**

**"You must be the famous Pepper Potts." Christine said, walking over to her.**

**"Indeed I am." Pepper said.**

**"After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the dry- cleaning." Christine said, rudely**.

Everyone in the room glared at Christine.

 **"I do anything and everything Mr Stark requires, including occasionally talking out the trash. Will that be all?" Pepper said unfazed**.

"Boom, roasted!." Shuri yelled and all the teens laughed.

"That was quite the comeback." Natasha said.

**The scene changes to Tony's basement. Tony appears to be working on a car. "Give me an exploded view." He says to JARVIS.**

**"The compression in cylinder 3 appears to be low."**

**"Log that."**

**Pepper is shown walking down the stairs, she's talking on the phone.**

**"I'll try again." she says. when she enters Tony's music turns down.**

**"Please don't turn down my music." Tony says.**

Pepper rolled her eyes.

**"I'll keep you posted." Pepper says to whoever she's on the phone with. She hangs up and turns to Tony. "You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now." She says to him.**

**"How'd she take it?" Tony asks, referring to his most recent one night stand.**

**"Like a champ." Pepper responds.**

"If by champ you mean running out of there with her tail between her legs, than sure she took it like a champ." Maria said to Pepper.

**"Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?" Tony asks, turning around in his chair.**

**"Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago." Pepper says.**

**"That's funny, I thought with it being my plane and all it would just wait for me to get there." Tony said.**

"Ok he has a point." Bucky said.

**"Tony I need to speak to you about a couple things before I get you out the door." Pepper says.**

**"Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?" Tony continued.**

"He does have a point." Clint said, this time ducking when Natasha tried to smack him.

**"Larry called he's got another buyer for the Jackson Pullock in the wings, do you want it yes or no?" Pepper asked.**

**"Is it a good representation of his spring period?" Tony asked**.

"I don't think-" Bruce started.

**"No. The Springs was actually the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked, not "spring" like the season." Pepper answered.**

**"So?" Tony asked.**

**"I think it's a fair example. I think it's incredibly overpriced." Pepper said. Tony stood up.**

**"I need it, buy it, store it." Tony said.**

"Why do you need a Jackson Pullock painting?" Quill asked.

"I need it." Was the only answer he got.

**"Okay, the MIT commencement speech-" Pepper started, but was cut off.**

**"Is in June, please don't harangue me about this stuff, that's way down." Tony said.**

**"Well, they're haranguing me so I'm gonna say yes." Pepper said.**

**"Deflect it, absorb it, don't transmit it back to me." Tony said.**

"Is this how your conversations usually go?" T'Challa asked.

"No." "Yes." Tony and pepper said at the same time.

**"I need you to sign this before you get on that plane." Pepper said.**

**"What are you trying to get rid of me for, what have you got plans?" Tony asked.**

**"As a matter of fact I do."**

"It's your birthday, isn't it?" Hope asked.

Pepper nodded.

"You forgot didn't you?" Scott asked.

Tony nodded.

**"I don't like it when you have plans." Tony stated.**

**"I'm not allowed to have plans on my birthday?" Pepper asked.**

**"Its your birthday?" Tony asked.**

**"Yes." Pepper answered.**

**"I knew that."**

"But you didn't, though." Ned said.

**"Already?" Tony asked.**

**"Yeah, isn't that strange, same day as last year." Pepper said.**

"Ah fuck, I cant believe you've done this." Peter said in an English accent.

"Language!" Steve yelled. Bucky looked at him incredulously.

"You've said worse, you hypocrite." He whispered.

**"Get yourself something nice from me." Tony said.**

**"I already did." Pepper said.**

**"And?" Tony pressed.**

**"It was very nice." Pepper said.**

**"Yeah." Tony said.**

**"Very tasteful. Thank you Mr Stark." Pepper said.**

**"You're welcome Ms Potts." Tony said.**

"Moments." Peter, Ned and Shuri whispered together.

**The scene cuts to two cars racing down the street. They eventually pull into an empty parking lot. Tony gets out of one of them, Happy gets out of the other. "You're good? I thought I lost you back there." Tony says to Happy.**

**"You did sir, I had to cut across Muholland."Happy said, slamming the trunk of his car.**

**"I got you, I got you." Tony says.**

**"What is wrong with you?" Rhodey yells.**

**"What?" Tony asks.**

**"Three hours."**

"You stood there for three hours?" Drax asked. Rhodey nodded. "Did you become invisible?" Drax asked.

"No?" Rhodey asks.

"Then you have not mastered the art of standing so still that you become invisible to the eye." Everyone just stared at him.

**"I got caught doing a piece for vanity fair." Tony says and walks into the plane.**

"How do you put up with him?" Fury asked. "I've learned to, we've known each other for years." Rhodey answered.

**"For three hours, for three hours you got me standing here." Rhodey says.**

**Tony, who is already in the plane says "Waiting on you now, wheels up. Let's rock and roll."**

Rhodey glares at Tony. "You're not still mad about that too are you?" Tony asks.

"I'm not mad, I'm indifferent."

**The scene changes to inside the plane.**

**"What are you reading platypus?" Tony asks Rhodey who is in the chair across from him.**

"What is a platypus?" Thor asks.

"Its like a mix between a beaver and a fish." Bruce says.

"Perry." Peter sings. Shuri broke out laughing. T'Challa looked confused.

**"Come on sour patch, don't be mad." Tony continues.**

"He's allowed to be mad." Natasha said. 

"I never said he wasn't." Tony countered. 

"It was implied."

**"I told you I'm not mad I'm... I'm indifferent. Okay?" Rhodey says without looking up from what he was reading.**

**"I said I was sorry." Tony says as a stewardess comes into view.**

**"Good morning Mr Stark." She says.**

**"You don't need to apologize to me, I'm your man." Rhodey says.**

"Apologizes are appreciated though... when I know you mean them." Rhodey added.

**"Hi I told him I was sorry but he-" Tony says to the stewardess.**

**"I'm indifferent right now." Rhodey says.**

**"Hot towel?" The stewardess asks.**

**"You don't respect yourself, so I know you don't respect me." Rhodey says.**

**"I respect you." Tony insists.**

**"I'm just your babysitter."**

"That you are colonel." Fury said.

"I honestly think you're the only one capable of keeping him in line, maybe other than pepper." Natasha said.

"You got that right." Clint said.

**"So when you need your diaper changed..." The stewardess hands him a towel.**

**"Thank you. Let me know and I'll get you a bottle." He finishes.**

**"Hey! heat up a sake will you?" Tony says to the stewardess. He turns to Rhodey, "Thanks for reminding me."**

Everyone rolled their eyes.

 **"No I'm not talking..." Rhodey goes to protest.** **"We're not drinking, we're working right now." Rhodey says annoyed.**

**"You can't have sashimi without sake." Tony protests.**

**"You are constitutionally incapable of being responsible."**

"Right again colonel, two for two." Maria says.

**"It would be irresponsible not to drink, I'm just talking about a nightcap." Tony says.**

**The stewardess comes back. "Hot sake?"**

**"Yes two please."**

**"No I'm not drinking, I don't want any"**

"You're gonna end up drinking, aren't you?" Clint asked.

**"That's what I'm talking about." The scene switches to Tony and Rhodey on a couch. The stewardess' are dancing. "When I get up in the morning and I'm putting on my uniform, you know what I recognize? I see in that mirror that every person that's got this uniform on got my back!"**

"Oh my god." Rhodey groans and puts his face in his hands.

"How much did you have?" Quill asks.

"Actually I had more than him." Tony says.

"Friend Tony you can hold your liquor" Thor complimented.

**Tony wasn't listening. H e was looking at the dancers.**

**"Hey you know what. I'm not like you I'm not cut out..."**

**"No no you don't have to be like me but you're more than you are."**

"That makes no sense." Pepper said.

"If you're drunk it does." Tony corrected.

**"Can you excuse me if I'm a bit distracted here?"**

**"No you can't be distracted right now."**


	3. weapons presentation gone wrong

**The scene switched to Tony getting off the plane. He walked up to a man and shook his hand.**

**"General." He greeted.**

**"Welcome Mr Stark, we look forward to your weapons presentation. The man said.**

**"Thanks" Tony responded**.

"Oh boy." Tony groaned.

**"Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line."**

"Contradictory name you got there." Clint said.

'Freedom line?' Steve thought, angrily.

**"It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire."**

"In most cases, that is true." Loki said. 

**"I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far."**

"Can't argue with that." Scott said.

 **"Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves. For your consideration, the Jericho." As he was talking, the missile was fired which resulted in a large explosion.** **_(A/N can you tell I cant write 'action scenes)._**

"Jesus Christ!" Peter Quill said.

"Oh my god." Gamora said.

"its a good thing you're on our side." Fury said. Maria silently agreed.

"Yeah, I'm not proud of it." Tony said, a guilty look on his face.

**Tony walks away and grabs a glass of scotch(the same from the first scene). "I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!"**

"No, not peace. war." Steve said.

**Tony gets a call from Obadiah. "Tony!" He greets.**

**"Obie, what are you doing up?" Tony asks.**

**"I couldn't sleep until I found out how it went, how'd it go?" He asks.**

"Asshole!" Pepper glares at the screen.

**"It went great, looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas." Tony said.**

**"Hey! way to go, I'll see you tomorrow yeah?"**

Pepper, Rhodey, Happy and the SHIELD agents all glared at the screen.

**"Why aren't you wearing those pajamas I got you?"**

**"Goodnight Tony."**

**Tony then gets into a hum-vee. Rhodey walks over to the window. "Hey Tony." He greets.**

**"I'm sorry this is the fun-vee the humdrum-vee is back there." Tony says and points behind him.**

A few people laughed.

Rhodey just sighed.

**"Nice job, I'll see you back at the base." Rhodey says and walks away.**

**Then it shows the attack from the first scene**.

"No you won't." Tony said ominously.

"What do you mean he wont?" Scott asked. He didn't receive an answer.

**The next scene is in Tony's first person perspective. He's lying on a bed There are people performing surgery on him. The voices are muffled. Tony is screaming. When they're done they knock him out.**

"They did that to you in a cave!?" Strange asked.

"That is inhumane man." Clint said.

"What!? Without putting you to sleep first!?" Bruce asked.

"Yes they did, lets keep watching." Tony says, voice tight **.**

**Tony is now in a bed, awake. He feels the tube in his nose and goes to pull it out. He then tries to grab a glass of water but just ends up knocking it over. He pulls at the wires that are coming out of his chest when he turns over.. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." A man pipes up from the side of the bed.**

**Tony looks sown at his chest and takes notice to the bandages. He pulls at them, sees the electromagnet and faints.**

"What the hell did he do to you?" Scott asked.

"He saved my life." Tony replied.

**A little while later, he wakes. Tony sits up. "What the hell did you do to me?" He asks.**

**"What I did? What I did was to save your life." The man says.**

**"I removed all the shrapnel I could but but there's a lot left, and it's headed into your atrial septum. Here, want to see?" The man continues and holds out a glass bottle with small pieces of metal inside of it.**

"That's in your body?" Rocket asked. Tony nodded.

"Who's the man you are with?" Hope asked.

"His name was Yinsen." Tony responded. A few people were confused at the 'was' but dropped the subject.

**"I have a souvenir, here take a look." He says and promptly tosses it to Tony who stares at it for a minute. "I've seen many wounds like that in my village. We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."**

"I love the walking dead." Peter said, trying to bring light to the scene. A few people chuckled.

"I do too, but it's not as good as it used to be." Clint said.

"What is the walking dead?" Drax asked.

"It's a TV show." Scott answered.

**"What is this?" Tony asked pointing at his chest. "That is an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery and it is keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart."**

"A car battery!?" Bruce and Strange yelled.

**Tony looked down and zipped up his jacket. He then looks up and notices the camera. "That's right smile." Yinsen says, taking notice to that.**

"Okay, but that sounded creepy." Peter said.

**"We met once, you know. at a technical conference in Bern." He says.**

**"I don't remember." Tony mumbles.**

"Of course you wouldn't." Happy said.

**"No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits." He says.**

"You gave a speech while intoxicated?" Steve asked.

"Out of all the things you've seen me do so far, that's what surprises you?" Tony asked.

"Actually that's fair, and we haven'e even known each other for 2 weeks."

**"Where are we?" Tony asks. but his question goes unanswered when a commotion is heard outside of their room.**

"Yeah, where are you?" Quill asked.

"A cave in Afghanistan, being held captive." Tony answered.

**Yinsen rushes over to help him stand. "Come on, stand up, stand up." Yinsen says as Tony finally gets on his feet. "Just do as I do." He says. "Come on put your hands up."**

**A man starts talking in Arabic.**

**"Those are my guns, how did they get my guns?" Tony asks, panicked.**

"Is it really that surprising, you built weapons for a living, Stark." Natasha says.

"I was terribly Naive back then." Tony answers.

"I can tell."

**Tony asks what the man is saying. "He says He says, "Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer "in the history of America."He is honored. He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated." He gives Tony a picture. "This one." Yinsen says.**

**"I refuse." Tony says.**

"That is not what you say to your captors." Clint shouts.

**The scene cuts to Tony being tortured. He is dunked head first into a tub of water. In his head he hears Pepper yell "Tony." Then the car battery shorts.**

"You heard me?" Pepper asked. Tony nodded.

"That is a prime example of why you should not say that to your captors." Clint said. Natasha smacked him.

**The scene now shows the men leading Tony and Yinsen out of the cave, the former has a sack on his head.**

"Was the sack really necessary?" Scott asked.

"They didn't want me to know the way out, lucky for me, there's more than one way to figure that out." Tony said.

**When they reach the outdoors someone takes the sack off of his head. Tony sees that there are a lot of Stark Industries weapons there.**

**A man starts speaking in a foreign language.**

**"He wants to know what you think." Yinsen translates for him.**

**"I think you got a lot of my weapons." he says to the man.**

"Well, you're not wrong." Natasha said.

**"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make the list of materials. He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you free." Yinsen says.**

"I don't think he will." Steve said.

**"No he wont." Tony denies.**

**"No he wont." Yinsen agrees.**

A few people frowned, it was strange to see Tony so hopeless.

**Tony shakes the mans hand.**

**The scene changes. Tony is sitting in front of a fire. Yinsen is a few feet away. "I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work, in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?" Yinsen speaks**.

"He could give you a run for your money with that speech Steve." Bucky laughs.

**"Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me, you, either way. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week." Tony says, hopelessly.**

"Tony." Rhodey sighed, sadly.

**"Than it is a very important week for you then." Yinsen says. Tony looks up, with look of determination in his eyes.**

A few people smiled.

**The scene changes to Tony giving orders to everyone while Yinsen translates. "If this is going to be my work station, I want it well-lit. I want these up.I need welding gear. I don't care if it's acetylene or propane.I need a soldering station. I need helmets. I'm gonna need goggles.I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools." Tony says.**

"I am Groot." Groot asked.

"I Hope he doesn't." Rocket replied.

"You're building it!?" Steve asked.

Tony didn't answer, hoping his silence would knock some sense into Steve. Come on who does Steve think he is? Of course he's not building it.

**The scene cuts to Tony breaking down one of the bombs. Yinsen is watching him. "How many languages do you speak?" Tony asks.**

**"A lot... But apparently not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian." Yinsen lists.**

"Impressive." Natasha said.

**"Who are these people?" Tony asks.**

**"They are your loyal customers sir. They call themselves the ten rings." He replies.**

"If by loyal customers, you mean terrorists, then sure, they're loyal customers."

**"You know we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process." He continues.**

"You would." Bruce agreed.

**Tony nods but says nothing. "Okay we don't need this." Tony says after pulling a part of the bomb out and tossing it away.**

**He then holds up a small square of metal. "What is that?" Yinsen asks.**

**"That's palladium, .15 grams. We need at least 1.6 so why don't you go break down the other 11." Tony commands**.

"Palladium? Isn't that toxic?" Bruce asked.

"Yep." Tony said popping the p.

"And I'm guessing you ran into that problem later."

"Yep."

**The scene shows Yinsen pulling a smelting cup out of a fire. "Careful, careful we only got one shot at this." Tony says anxiously.**

**"Relax. I have steady hands, why do you think you're still alive." Yinsen says and pours what was in the smelting cup into a mold.**

**"What do I call you?" Tony asks.**

**"My name is Yinsen." Yinsen replies.**

**"Nice to meet you Yinsen."**

**"Nice to meet you too."**

A few people smiled.

**Tony is shown putting together an object. "That doesn't look like the Jericho missile." Yinsen says.**

"That's because it isn't" Clint said.

**"That's because its a miniaturized arc reactor." Tony says. "I've got a big one powering my factory at home."**

"You built that in a cave!?"pretty much the whole room yelled.

**"It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart." Tony finishes.**

**"But what could it generate?" Yinsen asks.**

**"If my math is right, and it always is. About 3 gigajoules per second." Tony responds.**

The scientists in the room looked shocked. That could run his heart for millennia.

**"That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes." Yinsen says, astonished.**

"That's like 4,000 years." Peter said.

**"Yeah, or something big for 15 minutes." Tony says and grabs some sheets of paper to show Yinsen. "This is our ticket out of here." Tony says. Yinsen asks what it is. "Flatten them out and look." The paper reveals the Mark 1 iron man suit.**

**"Oh wow."**

"So you did that in a cave too?" Scott asked.

"Yeah."

**The scene shows Yinsen and Tony playing a board game. "Good roll, good roll." Yinsen says and Tony takes one of his pieces.**

**"You still haven't told me where you're from." Tony says.**

**"I am from a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place." Yinsen says.**

**Tony asks if he's got a family.**

**"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here." Yinsen says. "And you, Stark."**

**"No." "No? So you're a man with everything and nothing?" Yinsen asks.**

"You have me, Pepper and Happy Tony." Rhodey told Tony.

**Tony and Yinsen are seen working on the iron man suit through the camera in their room. People are talking about how he isn't building it, and that the tail is all wrong.**

"They weren't very intelligent were they?" Bruce asked.

"Their leader was probably the smartest among them." Tony said.

**Tony and Yinsen continue to work on the suit, then Raza walks through the door. Yinsen and Tony put their hands up. "Relax." Raza says. Tony and Yinsen hesitantly put their hands down. "The bow and arrow was once the pinnacle of weapons technology." He states.**

"Still packs a punch if you use it right." Clint muttered.

**"It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire. But today, whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules these lands. And soon, it will be my turn." He continues.**

"No, I don't think it will." Steve muttered.

**Raza takes notice to Tony's blueprints. " _Why have you failed me_?" He says in another language. **

**" _We are working._ " Yinsen replies. **

**" _Diligently._ "**

**"I _let you live... this is how you repay me_?" Raza says, walking toward Yinsen. **

**" _It is very complex, he is trying very hard._ " Yinsen says. **

**Tony looks around the room.**

**A man grabs Yinsen. " _On his knees_." And forces him down. **

A few people gasped.

**" _You think I am a fool_?" Raza asks, rhetorically. " _I'll get the truth._ " **

**" _We are both working._ " Yinsen says, a gun is pointed at his head. **

'Please don't kill him, he doesn't deserve to die.' Steve thought.

**Raza pulls a hot coal out of the fire. " _Open your mouth._ " He says. **

**"What does he want?" Tony pipes up quietly.**

**" _You think I am a fool, what's going on?_ " Raza asks. " _Tell me the truth._ " He lowers the coal to Yinsen's mouth. **

A few people cringed and winced.

**" _He is building the Jericho._ " Yinsen says. **

**" _Tell me the truth._ " Raza presses. **

**" _He is building the Jericho._ " Yinsen says. **

**Raza moves his hand closer to his mouth.**

**"What do you want a delivery date, I can-" Tony says and moves closer.**

"Bad idea." Natasha said.

**The men by the door all point their guns at him. "I need him, good assistant." Tony says and Raza drops the coal.**

Everyone let out sighs of relief.

 **"You have until tomorrow to assemble my missile." He says and leaves**.

"Well at least he's a little intelligent." Rocket muttered.

"I am Groot?" Groot inquired.

"Well, he knows that somethings not right, granted he doesn't know exactly what that entails but he's suspicious." Gamora answered.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Natasha added.

**The scene cuts to Tony banging on a piece of metal with a hammer. He then dips in into water and puts it on the table that Yinsen is working at.**

"You are a very good blacksmith, Tony." Thor complimented.

**The scene shows Tony wrapping his hands in tape. In the background Yinsen is lifting up chest piece. Tony is putting a coat on now. Yinsen helps Tony put gloves on. He then fastens something around Tony's neck. Yinsen lets the chest piece down and onto Tony.**

**"Okay? Can you move?" He asks. He makes a fist for emphasis. Tony makes a fist in response. "Okay say it again." He says.**

**"41 steps straight ahead. Then 16 steps, that's from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right."**

"You memorized that with a sack on your head, and you were only out there once!" Quill proclaimed.

"I had too."

**Raza walks up to the screens that show the camera feed. " _Where is Stark._ " He asks a man next to him. **

**" _He was there a moment ago._ " The man says. **

"That wasn't the question." Nebula said.

**"Go look for him." Two men run off to the entrance to the cave. Raza continues looking at the screen that shows Yinsen working on the suit.**

**The men run up to the door calling for Tony and Yinsen.**

**"Say something, say something back to him." Tony says.**

**"He's speaking Hungarian, I don't-" Yinsen tries.**

**"Then speak Hungarian."**

"Because you can totally learn a language in 2 seconds." Clint said.

**"Okay, I know."**

**"What do you know?" Tony asks.**

**Yinsen says something in Hungarian.**

"He does pretty well under pressure." Natasha said slowly.

**The camera shows a makeshift bomb tied to the handles. The men open the door and the bomb goes off, throwing the men back.**

"Nice."

**Raza is looking at the camera as the explosion happens, the feed is cut. He sends more men to the room. "How'd that work." Tony asks.**

**"Oh my goodness, it worked alright."**

**"Yeah? That's what I do."**

Rhodey and Pepper both sighed.

**"Let me finish this."**

**"Initialize the power sequence."**

**Yinsen turns away and goes to the laptop on the table.** **"Tell me, tell me." He says.**

**"Function 11, tell me when you see a progress bar. It should be up right now." Tony says, sounding a little impatient.**

"Have a little patience." Clint said. 

"We were both probably going to die, how am I supposed to have patience then?" Tony asked.

**"Yes."**

**"Talk to me. Tell me when you see it."**

**"I have it." Yinsen says as a progress bar pops up on the screen.**

**"I Enter, I and Enter. Cone over here and button me up."Yinsen types into the computer and then goes to button tony up. "Every other hex bolt." He says.**

**"They're coming!"**

**"Nothing fancy just get it done. Just get it done."**

**"They're coming!"**

**"Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out okay?"**

**"We need more time." Yinsen realizes.**

"He's right." Natasha said.

**"I'm gonna go buy you some time."**

**"Stick to the plan!" Tony yells as Yinsen runs out of the room, picking up a gun and shooting at nothing.**

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Ned whispers.

"He should have stuck to the plan." Tony whispered.

**The men start running down the 'hallway'. They run back, this time being chased by Yinsen. Yinsen continues running, still shooting when he comes to a stop. The camera pans to show a group of men with their weapons pointed at him.**

"Uh-oh."

**The computer is shown, the progress bar is filled up and the power in the cave drains.**

**5 men run into the cave and notice the 2 dead men on the ground. They slowly start to enter the cave. The screen shows Tony clenching his fist. One man takes notice to him as the arc reactor glows. Tony throws him across the room.**

"Oh damn." Scott said.

**The men start shooting wildly around the room. Tony comes up to them and throws them around. He walks down the hallway to a man that is still shooting at him. The left over men start running away. They run into a room and lock themselves in. Tony starts to bang on the door and it eventually opens. The men run. Tony swing at one of them and got his arm stuck in a crevice.**

"Oh no."

**As he tries to get it out a man shoots at him. The bullet ricochets off of the helmet and hits the man instead. Raza walks out with a gun in his hand. Tony walks out and sees Yinsen lying injured on the ground. Raza shoots. Tony shoots back. Raza leaves.**

**Tony walks over to Yinsen. "Stark."**

**"Come on we gotta go. Move for me, we got a plan we gotta stick to it."**

**"This was always the plan, Stark."**

"No it wasn't." Clint said.

Natasha looked at the screen in realization, Yinsen was going to see his family, but his family was dead.

**"Come on, you're gonna see your family, get up." Tony says.**

**"My family is dead, I am going to see them now. It's okay. I want this, I want this."**

**"Thank you for saving me."**

**"Don't waste it. Don't waste your life." Yinsen says as he dies.**

"I am groot." Groot says sadly.

"You're right buddy, he didn't deserve that." Quill said.

Tony was looking anywhere but onscreen.

**Tony gets up quickly and walks out of the cave. People start to shoot at him. "My turn." He says darkly. Then he starts to light everything on fire.**

"You're scary when your angry." Clint said.

"You do realize that you were lighting deadly explosives on fire right?" Steve asked.

"Yes capsicle."

**A man on the top of a hill starts to shoot at him. Other people start as well. Tony falls to his knees. Then the explosives start going off. Tony gets up. Tony presses something on the arm of his suit and flies away.**

"That thing could fly!?" Rocket asked.

"Well, not exactly."

**Tony stays in the air for a few seconds then starts falling to the ground. The suit fell apart on impact. "Not bad."**

"Oh." Rocket said.

"For something made in a cave, it really wasn't bad." Bruce said.

**"Tony is walking in the desert with his jacket tied over his head. His arm is covered in blood. Then two helicopters are seen flying over a hill behind him. Tony waves up at them.**

**"Hey!" He says and falls to his knees. He holds out a peace sign.**

**The helicopters land and a group of soldiers get out including Rhodey. They run over to him. "How was the fun- vee?" he asks. Tony gives a fake laugh. "Next time you ride with me, okay?" he says and hugs him.**

"Well that's one way to greet your friend after being missing for three months." Clint says.

Tony was about to ask how he knew that but then he remembered, spy.

Him and Rhodey just laughed. "Lets hope there's no next time, yeah?" Rhodey asks.


	4. I'm done making weapons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one is a little bit shorter

**The plane lands in the air force base. Pepper is standing there with Happy right behind her. Inside the plane, Tony is now wearing a suit and is sitting in a wheelchair. Rhodey helps him get up. "Watch it coming up here." He says.**

**Then two people come into the frame with gurney. "Are you kidding me with this? Get rid of them." He says and waves the people away.**

**Pepper looks over at him with a smile on her face. Tony walks up to her. "You're eyes are red, few shed tears for your long lost boss?" He asks.**

**"Tears of joy, I hate job hunting." She retorts**.

"Just kiss already." Shuri whispers. T'Challa glares at her with a look that says 'now is not the time.'

**"Yeah? Vacations over." He says and walks away.**

**He, Pepper and Happy all get into a car. "Where to, sir?" He asks.**

**"Take us to the hospital please Happy-" Pepper begins.**

**"No." Tony says. "**

**No? Tony you have to-" She continues.**

**"No is a complete answer."**

"At least now I understand why." Pepper said.

**"The doctor has to look at you."**

**"I don't have to do anything, I've been in captivity for three months. There are two thing I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger and the other-"**

"Really?" Natasha asked.

**"that's enough of that."**

**"Is not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference."**

**"all for a press conference?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"What on Earth for?"**

"About that-" Tony said.

**"Hogan drive. Cheeseburger first."**

"What is it with you and eating after a traumatic experience?" Fury, of all people, asked. "I honestly don't know."

**Happy pulls into a parking lot. Obadiah is waiting outside of the building. "Look at this." He says as Tony exits the car. He runs up to Tony and hugs him.**

Rhodey, pepper, Tony and Coulson all glare at him.

**"Tony, we were gonna meet at the hospital." He says.**

**Happy comes up around the back of the car with a paper bag in his hands.**

**"No I'm fine." Tony says to Obadiah.**

**"Look at you! You just had to stop for a burger didn't you."**

**"Well come on."**

**"Did you get me one of those."**

"The first good food you've had in three months and he was trying to take it?" Strange asked. "Asshole."

**Tony, and Obadiah are seen walking through the hallway to be met with a large group of reporters.**

"Oh! is this that press conference?" Natasha asked. Though she probably already knew the answer.

"Yes it is that press conference agent Romanoff." Tony replied.

Some people were confused, namely the guardians and the two from Wakanda.

**Tony walks up to the podium. Pepper stares at him. Agent Coulson appears beside her.**

"Phil!" All of the avengers and Pepper yell except Tony who yells "Agent!"

**Miss Potts?" He asks.**

**"Yes."**

**"Can I speak to you for a moment?"**

**"Oh I'm not part of the press conference but it's about to begin right now."**

**"Oh, I'm not a reporter. I'm Phil Coulson, I'm with the strategic homeland intervention enforcement and logistics division."**

**"That's quite a mouthful."**

**"I know, we're working on it.** "

"sounds like someone really wanted to spell out shield." Quill said.

**"You know, we've been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA..."**

"Whoa."

**"We're a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark on the circumstances of his escape." Phil says.**

**"I'll put something in the book shall I?"**

**"Thank you." Phil walks away.**

**Obadiah is standing in front of the podium and Tony is sitting down in front of it. "Hey, would it be all right if everyone sat down? Why don't you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can... A little less formal and..." Tony says, the the room hesitantly sits down.**

"Wow, I'm impressed. You actually managed to get everyone to listen." Steve said.

**"What's with the love- in?" Rhodey asks.**

**"Don't look at me, I don't know what he's up to." Pepper responds.**

**"Good to see you." Tony says to Obadiah.**

**"Good to see you." He responds.**

**"I never got to say goodbye to dad." He says quietly. "I never got to say goodbye to my father." He says louder, now addressing the room**.

Steve frowned. Tony didn't even get a chance to say good bye?

The guardians looked confused, 'why would you lead a speech with that?'

**"There were questions I would have asked him. I would have asked how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of the man we all remember from the news reels.** **I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them and I saw that I had become a part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability." Tony spoke, his words slowly gaining intensity.**

**"Mr stark?" A reporter asks.**

**"Hey Ben." Tony replies.**

**"What happened over there?"**

**Tony stands up. The reporters stay seated. "Uh, I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International."**

Wanda smiled a little. 

**As he says this the reporters stand up and Obadiah tries to push him away from the microphone**.

"Trying to save his job." Fury muttered. Tony just glared at the screen.

**"Until such a time as I can decide what the future of this company will be. What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the higher good of this country as well." Tony says and walks off.**

**"What we should take away from this is that Tony's back and he's healthier than ever We are gonna have a little internal discussion and we'll get back to you with the follow up."**

"I wouldn't say that he was healthier than ever..." Bruce said.

**Obadiah is seen riding a Segway and smoking a cigar, Happy is standing in front of a car, smoking. "Where is he?" Obadiah asks.**

**"He's inside." Happy says as he takes the Segway.**

**Obadiah walks into the building, which is the building where the arc reactor is. "Well that- uh- that went well." He says around his cigar.**

"What is that?" Steve asked.

"That is the arc reactor that powered the factory." Tony said.

"But its huge, how did you shrink it" Bucky questioned.

"Math."

**"Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?" Tony asks as Obadiah walks in.**

**"Your head? What about my head? What do you think the over- under stock drop is gonna be tomorrow?" Obadiah asks and walks over to Tony who's looking at the arc reactor.**

**"Optimistically, 40 points." Tony says.**

**"At minimum." Obadiah counters.**

**"Yep."**

**"Tony we're a weapons manufacturer."**

**"Obie, I just don't want a body count to be our only legacy."**

The audience winced at that.

**"That's what we do. We're iron mongers. We make weapons." Obadiah presses.**

**"It's my name on the side of the building." Tony says.**

**"What we do keeps the world from falling into chaos."**

"Actually... it makes more chaos." Peter mumbled.

**"Not based on what I saw." Tony says. "We're not doing a good enough job, we can do better. We're gonna do something else."**

Wanda stared at him for a minute, trying to read him.

**"Like what, you want us to make baby bottles?" Obadiah asks.**

"Why is that the first thing that comes to mind?" Clint asked.

**"I think we should take another look into arc reactor technology." Tony says.**

**"Come on! The arc reactor? That was a publicity stunt, we built that thing to shut the hippies up."**

**"It works."**

**"Yeah as a science project. The arc was never cost effective, we knew that before we built it. Arc reactor technology that's a dead end right? We haven't had a breakthrough in that in what- 30 years?"**

**"That's what they say." Tony says and stares at him for a while, Obadiah is glancing at Tony's chest.**

"That man has a very bad poker face." Natasha said.

**"Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?" Tony asks.**

**"Never mind who told me, show me."**

**"It's Rhodey or Pepper."**

**"I want to see it."**

**"Okay. Rhodey."**

"Just to clarify. Which one of you was it?" Tony asked, looking back at the two.

"I'm sorry Tony." Rhodey said.

Tony turned away from him. "Okay."

**Tony takes his sling off and un-does the top buttons of his shirt, exposing the arc reactor in his chest. Obadiah looks around the room, then buttons Tony's shirt back up. "It works." Tony says.**

**Listen to me, Tony. We're a team. Do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we stick together, like your father and I-"**

**"I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads-up, okay? But if I had..."**

"He would have tried to talk you out of it." Gamora said.

**"Tony no more of this ready fire aim business, you understand me?"**

**"That was dads line."**

**"You gotta let me handle this. We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now. We're going to have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me that you're gonna lay low."**

"Stark? Lay low? Yeah right!" Clint shouted.

"Hey I think I did alright Legolas, y'know considering."

**Pepper is shown watching a TV show with a very annoying host.**

"Why are you watching that god awful TV show?" Maria asked her.

"I had to watch the reactions to the press conference." Pepper said.

"I do not understand, what is wrong with the show?" Thor questioned.

"You'll see." Natasha told him.

**"Stark Industries!I've got one recommendation! Ready? Ready? Sell, sell, sell! Abandon ship! Does the Hindenburg ring any bells?"**

"That's not funny." Steve said

**"Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan!Look, that's a weapons company that doesn't make weapons!" The host says. Pepper cringes at the TV.**

**"Pepper how big are your hands." Tony asks.**

**"What?" "How big are your hands?"**

**"I don't understand, why?"**

**"Get down here, I need you."**

"Dude, she's your assistant." Quill said. Pepper tried to look angry and Tony was laughing.

**Pepper walks down the stairs and sees Tony who is lying on a chair shirtless with electrodes attached to his chest. There's another arc reactor in his hand.**

"Please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing." Strange said.

Pepper just sighed.

"Oh dear lord." Bruce grumbled.

**Pepper walks over to him. "Hey. Let's see them. Show me your hands." Tony says. Pepper holds up her hands. "Oh wow. They are small, very petite indeed. I just need your help for a sec."**

**"Oh my god, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?" She asks.**

**"It was, now its an antique. I'm swapping it out for an upgraded unit and I just ran into a little speed bump."**

**"Speed bump, what does that mean?"**

**"Its nothing. Just a little snag." Tony says as he removes the reactor from his chest.**

"I'm 100% sure that its not 'nothing.'" Bruce said.

**"There's an exposed wire under this device and it's contacting the socket wall, causing a bit of a short." Tony hands the reactor to Pepper.**

**"What do you want me to do?" She asks.**

**"Put that over there, alright that's irrelevant." He says and Pepper puts it on the table.**

**"Oh my God!"**

**"I want you to reach in and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."**

**"Is it safe?" She asks.**

"NO!" Strange and Bruce yell.

**"yeah, it should be fine."**

**"It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep.'" Tony says.**

"You did not just compare a possibly life threatening operation to a children's game." Strange said exasperated.

**"What do you mean operation?"**

"How do you not know what operation is?" Scott asked.

**"It's just a game, never mind." Pepper goes to put her hand in Tony's chest. "Just gently lift the wire. Okay?"**

**Pepper pulls her hand away. "You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."**

**"No, you're fine. You are the most capable, qualified person that I've ever met, trust me you're gonna do great."**

"You know something's wrong when Tony tells you to trust him." Bruce said.

**"Is it too much of a problem, 'cause I'm-"**

**"Okay, Okay."**

**"I really need your help here."**

**Pepper slowly reaches her hand back into Tony's chest. "Oh! there's pus!" She exclaims.**

"There's pus!" Bruce yelled.

"It's not pus." Tony yelled back.

"Then what is it?" Bruce asked.

**"Its not pus it's an inorganic plasmic discharge, it's from the device not from my body." Tony explains.**

"What he said." Tony said and pointed at his onscreen counterpart.

**"It smells." Pepper cringes.**

**"Yeah it does. The copper wire, the copper wire you got it?"**

"Never as me to do anything like that again." Pepper warned.

**"I got it. I got it."**

**"Now don't let it touch the si- IDES- ides when you're coming out." Tony says.**

**"I'm sorry, I'm sorry."**

**"That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay now make sure when you pull it out you don't-" Pepper pulls out the wire with the magnet attached to it. "There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it, you just pulled it out."**

"Oh no!"

**"Oh God!"**

**"I was not expecting- Don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!"**

**"Okay what do I do? What's wrong?"**

**"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest..."**

"You said it was safe." Drax yelled.

"Whenever Stark says something's safe, it usually means it isn't." Natasha supplied.

"Well then why would he say that it was safe?" Drax questioned.

Just as Natasha went to explain Rocket piped up. "Don't bother he won't understand."

**"Cause you yanked it out like a trout lure!" Tony explains.**

**"What! You said it was safe!" Pepper yells.**

"I've learned my lesson now." Pepper said.

**Tony gives pepper the replacement arc reactor. "We gotta hurry. Take this, take this."**

**"Tony, its gonna be okay."**

**"What? Is it?"**

**"It's gonna be okay. I will make this okay."**

**"Let's hope." Pepper goes to put the arc reactor in. "Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you... OW!" Tony says as Pepper finishes. "Was that so hard? That was fun, right? Here, I got it. I got it. Here. Nice." Tony says.**

"And now you're fine." Rhodey said, fondly.

**"Are you okay?" Pepper asks, breathlessly.**

**"Yeah, I feel great, are you okay?" Tony says and starts laughing.**

**"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again." Pepper says, trying to be stern but a smile makes its way onto her face.**

**"I don't have anyone but you." Tony says.**

"OTP." Shuri whispered.

"OTP." The rest of the teenagers started chanting.

**"Anyway..." Tony says and stands up.**

**"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper asks and holds up the old arc reactor.**

**"That? Destroy it, incinerate it." Tony says**

"Thank God you didn't." Tony whispered so only Pepper could hear.

"Right." She whispered back.

"Why are we whispering?" Rhodey whispered from behind them.

**"You don't want to keep it?" She asks.**

**"Pepper, I've been called many things 'nostalgic' is not one of them." Tony says.**

Natasha and Loki found that they could relate.

**"Will that be all Mr Stark?"**

**"That will be all Ms Potts."**

**Pepper walks away.** **Tony watches her go with a fond look on his face, he gives the arc reactor a few taps and turns to his desk. "Hey, Butterfingers come here, what's all this stuff doing on my desk? That's my phone, that's a picture of me and my dad. Right there. In the garbage. All that stuff."**


	5. That backstabbing sonofabitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rest in peace Chadwick Boseman❤

**The scene shows Rhodey talking to a group of soldiers. "The future of air combat, is it manned or un-manned?I'll tell you, in my experience, no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct, his insight, that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome, or a pilot's judgment." He says.**

**Then Tony walks in. "Colonel, why not the pilot without the plane?"Tony asks and shakes a soldiers hand.**

**"Look who fell out of the sky its Mr Tony Stark." Rhodey says.**

**"Speaking of manned or un-manned you got to get him to tell you about the time he guessed wrong at spring break, just remember that spring break 1987. That lovely lady you woke up with?" Tony starts and the soldiers laugh.**

Rhodey sighed.

**"Don't do that."**

**"Was it Ivan?"**

**"Don't do that, they'll believe that, don't do that."**

**"Okay."**

**"Don't do that."**

"Did that actually happen though?" Quill asked.

Tony nodded and laughed but Rhodey shook his head then smacked the back of his friends head.

**"Pleasure meeting you. " Tony says to the soldiers.**

**"Give us a couple minutes you guys." Rhodey dismisses them and they walk away. "I swear, I didn't expect to see you walking around so soon." Rhodey says as the soldiers leave.**

**"I'm doing a little better than walking."**

"Injuring yourself further." Pepper said.

**"Really?"**

**"Yeah, Rhodey I'm working on something big. I came to talk to you, I want you to be a part of it."**

**"You're about to make a whole lot of people around here real happy, 'cause that little stunt at the press conference, that was a doozy."**

"You didn't support it?" Steve asked.

**"This isn't for the military. I'm not- its different."**

**"What are you a humanitarian now or something?"**

**"I need you to listen to me-"**

"Why are you shooting him down?" Clint asked.

**"No. What you need is to get your mind right. I'm serious."**

**"Okay."**

**"It's nice seeing you Tony."**

**"Thanks." Tony watches him go with a small frown on his face.**

"Just to make something clear, I thought he wasn't being serious at the press conference. I thought it was just a spur the moment thing that resulted from Post traumatic stress." Rhodey explained. Then looked over at Tony. "Which everyone thought you had by the way."

**Tony is in his lab typing on a weird keyboard. "Jarvis, you up?" He asks.**

**"For you sir, always."**

"I've been meaning to ask, why does Jarvis call you sir?" Shuri asked.

"I couldn't tell you, manners maybe." Tony responded.

**Pictures of the mark 1 Iron Man armor appear on the screens. Tony drags it to a table where it appears as a hologram. "I'd like to open a new file, index as Mark 2." He says.**

**"Shall I store this on the stark industries central database?" Jarvis asks.**

**Tony gets up and walks over to the table. "Actually I don't know who to trust right now, 'till further notice why don't we just keep everything on my private server."**

**"Working on a secret project are we sir?"Tony takes some things out of the armor and puts them in a holographic trash can.**

**"I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands, maybe in mine it can actually do some good."**

"It has actually winded up in the wrong hands a few times." Pepper sighed.

"Who's?" Steve asked.

"I'm sure one of these movies we're being forced to watch will tell you." Tony said.

**People are in a desert and they are digging. One guy holds up the face plate. They start speaking in a foreign language. Raza appears on screen with a large burn mark on the side of his face. The man who found the mask brings it to Raza.**

"This is not going to end well." Bruce muttered.

"No it is not." Tony said.

**Tony is working on a boot. Dummy is assisting him. "Next. Up. Not in the boot, Dummy. Right here. You got me? Stay put. Nice. You're of no benefit at all. Move down to the toe. I got this. Okay, I'm sorry, am I in your way? Up. Screw it. Don't even move. You are a tragedy."**

"Why are you so mean to it." Steve asked.

"It is a he, Rogers and I'm not its just tough love." Tony said.

"He?" Steve asked himself.

**Tony is standing in the middle of his lab wearing the boots with hand controls in his hands, dummy is behind him, U is behind the camera and is recording. "Okay, lets do this right. Start mark, half a meter, and back and center. Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety. You, roll it. Okay. Activate hand controls. We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift."**

"This is not gonna end well." Shuri groaned.

**"And three, two, one." Tony shoots himself into the back wall of his lab, falls down and dummy sprays him with the fire extinguisher.**

The whole room, even Fury, burst out laughing.

"So that's what happens when your in your lab for days on end."Pepper smirked.

**Tony is at his computer and working on blueprints for hand flight stabilizers. He is working on it at the hologram table and puts his hand in the hologram. He now has a physical one, he closes it around his arm. Pepper is shown walking town the stairs, she has a box and coffee in her hand. "Up two, alright set that." Tony says.**

**Pepper walks over to him. "I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?" She asks and sets the box and coffee down on a nearby table. "Obadiah's upstairs."**

**"Great!"**

"Not great." Tony said.

**"What would you like me to tell him?"**

**"I'll be right up." Tony lifts his arm off the table.**

**"I thought you said you were done making weapons?" She asks when she sees what hes working on.**

**"It is. This is a flight stabilizer. Its completely harmless." He says, then activates it and shoots himself backward. Pepper covers her ears. "I didn't expect that." Tony says**.

"You seem to injure yourself a lot." Strange said.

"I'm not sure its completely harmless." Steve said.

"I can assure you I don't injure myself on purpose." Tony said.

Pepper glared at him. "Most of the time." He finished.

**Tony walks up the stairs. Pepper is sitting on the couch. Obadiah is playing the piano. "How'd it go?" Tony asks, then sees the pizza on the coffee table. "It went that bad, huh."**

"Why is pizza a bad thing?" Peter asked.

"Uh, Obadiah would always bring back food to like soften the blow, pretty much comfort food." Tony answered.

**"Just because I brought back pizza from New York, doesn't mean it went bad." He says.**

**Tony grabs a piece. "Sure it doesn't, oh boy." He says.**

**"It would have gone better if you were there." Obadiah says and stands up from the piano bench.**

"Didn't you tell him that he should stay home?" Scott asked.

**Tony takes a bite of his pizza. "Uh- huh. You told me to lay low that's what I've been doing. I lay low You take care of all..." Tony says and wipes his mouth with a napkin.**

**Obadiah walks over to the couch.** **"In public, the press. This was a board of directors meeting." He says and sits down.**

**"This was- this was a board of directors meeting?"**

**"The board is claiming that you have post traumatic stress, they're filing an injunction."**

**"A what?"**

**"They want to lock you out."**

"More like you wanted to lock me out!" Tony yelled.

"I don't understand what did he do?" Steve asked.

"You'll find out." Tony said.

**"Why, 'cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was gonna happen." Tony says.**

**"56 1/2." Pepper pipes up from the other end of the couch.**

"No offence, but I really don't think that's helping." Natasha said.

**"It doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company." He says.**

**"Tony, the board has rights too. They're making a case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest." Obadiah says.**

**"I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for me- for the company. I mean me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that..." Tony says and notices the look Obadiah and Pepper are giving him. "This is great." He says and picks up the pizza.**

**"Oh, come on. Tony, Tony." Obadiah says walking after him.**

**"I'll be in the shop."**

**"Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen. I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them. Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know, draw up some specs." He says and points at the arc reactor.**

"Absolutely not." Shuri said.

**"No, no absolutely not."**

**"It'll give me a bone to throw to the boys in New York."**

**"This one stays with me. That's it Obi, forget it."**

**"Alright, well this stays with me then." Obadiah takes the pizza.**

**"Go on here you can have a piece, take two." He says.**

**"Thank you." Tony says, takes a piece and walks downstairs. "**

**Mind if I come down there and see what you're doing?"**

**"Goodnight Obi!"**

"Is it just me or does that man make everyone else a little uneasy?" Maria asked.

"It is not just you." T'Challa said.

**Tony is standing in his lab, in front of a lot of nice cars with the flight stabilizers on. Dummy is behind him, U is beside him, recording.**

"You have some very nice cars, Tony." Clint said.

"Thanks Legolas."

**"Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option Dummy is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I am donating you to a city college."**

"We both know you wouldn't do that Tony, you love him too much." Rhodey said.

**"Alright, nice and easy. Seriously just gonna start of with 1% thrust capacity."**

A few people snickered, remembering what happened with 10%.

 **"And three, two one." He says and activates the stabilizers and hovers about 2 feet in the air for a few seconds. "Okay." He lands and stumbles a bit. He turns to Dummy. "Please don't follow me around with it either, because I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire, spontaneously." He chastises**.

"Has that happened before?" Thor asked.

"Surprisingly, it has never happened. The only times hes ever sprayed me were when I was not on fire."

**"Just stand down! If something happens, then come in. And again, let's bring it up to 2.5." He says and activates the stabilizers. He starts flying backwards and ends up over the cars. "Okay! This is where I don't want to be!" He says, nervously. "Not the car, not the car!" He shouts. Then flies over to his desk and a few papers go flying off of it. "Table! Could be worse! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay." He makes his way back over to Dummy and lands, not without stumbling. "No! Ah ah ah ah ah." He says to Dummy, who was about to spray him.**

"Damn." Clint said, wishing Dummy would spray him again.

**"Yeah! I can fly." He says.**

**Tony is now getting completely suited up. "Jarvis, are you there?"**

**"At your service, sir."**

**"Engage heads up display."**

**"Check."**

**"Import all preferences from home interface."**

**"Will do sir."**

"I have always wondered what it looks like in there." Bruce said.

"Seems like it'd be a little rough on the eyes." Steve said.

**"All right, what do you say?"**

**"I have indeed been uploaded, sir. We're online and ready."**

**"Can we start the virtual walk-around?"**

**"Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment."**

**"Do a check on control surfaces."**

**"As you wish."**

**"Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics."**

**"Yeah. Tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control."**

"Bad idea." Bruce said, he had a feeling Tony was about do do something stupid.

**"Sir, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is-"**

**"Jarvis, sometimes you gotta run before you can walk."**

"That literally makes no sense at all." Bucky _**(A/N I realized that I didn't say what year he's from, he is from 2017.)**_ said.

"Actually, it makes perfect sense. Sometimes the faster you get to testing a project, the faster you can find any problems in it or things that may need some tweaking. Things that you otherwise would have missed if you did it 'normally'" Peter said.

"He's right." Shuri noted.

"But, in this case, Tony, you could have gotten seriously hurt." Bruce scolded.

"Who's to say I didn't get seriously hurt."

**"Ready? In three, two one." Tony flies out of his garage with a yell of excitement. "Whoo!" He flies over the ocean. "Handles like a dream." He flies over to a Ferris wheel, two kids are eating ice cream, the little boy's ice cream falls out of the cone.**

"Press F to pay respects to the ice cream." Shuri said, wiping a fake tear from her eye.

"F" All the teenagers said.

T'Challa just sighed.

**"Alright, let's see what this thing can do. What's SR-71s record?"**

"I don't like where this is going." Rhodey mumbled.

**"The altitude record for fixed wing flight is 85,000 feet, sir." Jarvis says.**

**"Records are made to be broken! Come on!"**

Pepper smacked Tony's head. "You're an idiot."

**Tony keeps flying straight up. "Sir, there is a potentially fatal build up of ice occurring." Jarvis says.**

**"Keep going, higher!"**

"Lower!" Everyone yelled.

**The suit loses power and Tony starts to fall, he screams. "We iced up, Jarvis! Deploy flaps! Jarvis! Come on, we got to break the ice!" The ice breaks and the power comes back. Tony hovers over his roof. "Kill power." He falls through the roof and the piano on the second floor and lands on one of his cars. Dummy sprays him with the fire extinguisher, Tony throws his head back in exasperation.**

"Why does he keep spraying you with the fire extinguisher?" Steve asked.

"Because he's dense and apparently hasn't learned a thing in all the years I've had him." Tony said.

**Tony is walking around his lab, holding an ice pack to his head. He spots the box Pepper left him a few days ago. He takes the coffee cup off of it and looks at the box. There's a note that says 'from Pepper.' He picks the box up and opens it. Inside of a glass case is the arc reactor that he asked Pepper to get rid of, around it is an engraving that says 'Proof That Tony Stark has a Heart'. Tony smiles.**

"Aw." All the girls, yes even Natasha, said.

"Your gift saved my life, you know." Tony told her. "Also, single-handedly the best gift I've ever gotten."

**The 10 Rings are trying to figure out how to put the armor together by looking at Tony's blueprints. Raza is staring at it.**

"Oh no." Happy mumbles. ** _(A/N bet you all forgot he was here, that's okay because I did too.)_**

**Tony is sitting at his desk with an ice pack taped to his shoulder. "Notes. Main transducer feels sluggish at plus 40 altitude. Hull pressurization is problematic. I'm thinking icing is the probable factor." He says.**

**"A very astute observation, sir. Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets, we should improve the exosystems." Jarvis says.**

"Only you would create an AI that's as sarcastic as you, Stark." Fury said.

**"Connect to the sys. co. Have it reconfigure the shell metals. Use the gold titanium alloy from the seraphim tactical satellite. That should ensure a fuselage integrity while maintaining power-to-weight ratio." Tony says and takes a drink of a green smoothie.**

**"Shall I render using proposed speculations."**

**"Thrill me." Tony looks over at the TV.**

**"Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Tony Stark's third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund has become the place to be for L.A.'s high society." The woman on the TV says.**

**"Jarvis, we get an invite to that?"**

**"I have no record of an invitation, sir."**

"You're not invited to your own party?" Steve asked.

**"-hasn't been seen in public since his bizarre and highly controversial press conference. Some claim he's suffering from post traumatic stress and has been bedridden for weeks. Whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from him tonight." The woman onscreen continues.**

"You just jinxed it." Clint said.

"What does jinx mean?"Loki asked.

"It pretty much means that that lady is expecting something to happen but by saying it out loud, the opposite of what she expects will happen." Natasha explained.

"Terrans are weird." Rocket muttered.

**"The render is complete." Jarvis said and a gold painted suit appeared on one of the screens.**

**"A little ostentatious, don't you think?"**

**"What was I thinking? You're usually so discrete."**

"You just got roasted! By your own AI." MJ said while laughing.

The only thing any of the adults were thinking at this point was 'Why are there so many teenagers here?'

**Tony looks over at his car. "Tell you what, throw a little hot- rod red in there."**

**"Yes, that should help you keep a low profile. The render is complete."**

**"** **Hey, I like it. Fabricate it, paint it."**

**"Commencing automated assembly. Estimated completion time is five hours."**

**Tony stands up and holds out his watch. "Don't wait up for me honey."**

"You're going to that thing, aren't you?" Quill asked.

**Tony is driving down the street. He pulls up outside the party and gets out, he hands his keys to the valet. Obadiah is seen talking to a reporter. Weapons manufacturing is only one small part of what Stark Industries is all about, and our partnership with the fire and rescue community- " He says.**

**Tony walks up to the door. "Hey Tony, remember me?" A girl asks.**

**"Sure don't." He continues walking.**

**"You look great, Hef." He says to an old man (Stan Lee).**

"I know that guy!" Everyone in the room shouts.

"He was in one of my friends crazy long stories." Scott.

"He was in space." Rocket said.

"He's my neighbor." Peter said.

"He tried to move my hammer." Thor said.

"He was at the Expo." Tony said.

**"We're gonna have a great quarter." Obadiah says to the reporter.**

**"What's the world coming to when a guy's gotta crash his own party?" Tony asks.**

**"Look at you. Hey, what a surprise."**

**"I'll see you inside."**

**"Hey listen, take it slow alright, I think I got the board right where we want them."**

"You mean where you want them!" Pepper yelled.

**"You got it. Just cabin fever, I'll just be a minute." Tony says and walks inside. "Give me a scotch, I'm starving." He says and walks up to the bar.**

"You know, when normal people are hungry, they eat food." Rhodey said.

**Coulson is also there. "Mr Stark?" He asks.**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Agent Coulson."**

**"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the guy from the-"**

**"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."**

**"God, you need a new name for that."**

**"Yeah, I hear that a lot.** **Listen, I know this must be a trying time for you, but we need to debrief you. There's still a lot of unanswered questions, and time can be a factor with these things. Let's just put something on the books. How about the 24th at 7:00 p.m. at Stark Industries?" Phil says.**

**Tony isn't listening, he's looking at Pepper who is talking with some co-workers. "Tell you what. You got it. You're absolutely right. Well, I'm going to go to my assistant, and we'll make a date." He says and walks toward Pepper.**

"Oh my god you two were so in love, how could you not realize it." Wanda groaned.

**"You look fantastic, I didn't recognize you." He says.**

**"What are you doing here?" Pepper asks.**

**"Just avoiding government agents."**

"You say that like it's something that happened on a daily basis." Maria said. "Also government agent is a low- blow."

**"Are you by yourself?"**

**"Yes. Where'd you get that dress."**

**"Oh it was a birthday present."**

"Watch it be the one she got herself from Stark." Clint whispered to Natasha.

**"That's great."**

**"From you actually."**

"Told you." Clint said.

"I never said it wouldn't be." Natasha said.

**"Well, I got great taste."**

**"Yes."**

**"You want to dance?"**

**"Oh no."**

**"Alright come on."**

**"Thank you, no."**

**Tony leads them to where the other people are dancing and they start dancing. "Am I making you uncomfortable?" He asks.**

"Yes." Every woman in the room said.

**"No. No. I always forget to wear deodorant and dance with my boss in front of everyone that I work with in a dress with no back."**

**"You look great and y** **ou smell great."**

**"Oh god."**

**"But I could fire you if that would take the edge off."**

**"I actually don't think you can tie your shoes without me."**

**"I'd make it a week.** "

"I'd give you 4 days." Natasha joked.

"You know what, Natashalie." Tony said, Natasha smirked.

"Natashalie?" Bruce asked.

"I was sent to spy on him when shield found out he was.. ill and I used the name Natalie Rushman, you'll probably find out more about that little adventure later."

**"Really? what's your social security number." She asks.**

**Tony thinks for a moment. "5." He deadpans.**

"You really don't know your social security number?" Steve asked.

**"5?"**

**"Right."**

**"Right, you're missing a couple digits there."**

**"The other 8? So, I got you for the other 8. How about a little air?"**

**"Yes, I need some air." They walk outside. Coulson is watching them.**

"I gotta admit, that's a little creepy." Natasha said.

**"That was totally weird." Pepper says.**

**"Totally harmless."**

"No not really, you just don't know how that might have looked to other people." Maria said.

**"It was not totally harmless by the way."**

**"We were dancing, no ones even watching."**

**"Everybody who I work with... no you know why."**

**"I think you lost objectivity. I think they just... people... we just danced."**

**"No, it was not just a dance. You don't understand because you're you. And everybody knows exactly who you are and how you are with girls and all of that, which is completely fine. But, you know, then me, you're my boss, and I'm dancing with you."**

**"I don't think it was taken that way."**

**"Because it makes me look like I'm the one who's trying to-"**

"It makes it look like she was trying to _you know_ her way to the top." Natasha said.

**"I just think you're overstating it." "You know, and we're here, and then I'm wearing this ridiculous dress, and then we were dancing like that and-" They move closer together, and almost kiss.**

**"I would like a drink please." Pepper says and backs away.**

**"Got it, okay." "I would like a vodka martini, please."**

**"Okay."**

**"Very dry with lots of olives, like at least 3 olives."**

**Tony walks back over to the bar. "Two vodka martinis, extra dry, extra olives, extra fast. Make one of them dirty, will you?" He sits down and Christine comes into view.**

"Why her?" Clint groaned.

**"Wow. Tony Stark."She says.**

**"Oh hey." Tony says.**

**"Fancy seeing you here."**

"Is it, though?" Scott asked.

**Tony struggles to place her name. "Carrie."**

"Christine." Everyone said.

**"Christine."**

**"That's right."**

**"You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight. Can I at least get a reaction from you?"**

**"Panic, I would say panic is my reaction.** "

"Mood." The teenagers mumbled.

**"'Cause I was referring to your company's involvement in this latest atrocity."**

**"Yeah. They just put my name on the invitation. I don't know what to tell you."**

"There was no invitation though, you just kind of showed up." Rhodey said.

**"I actually almost bought it, hook, line and sinker."**

**"I was out of town for a couple months, in case you didn't hear."**

"That's one way to put it." Pepper said.

**"Is this what you call accountability? It's a town called Gulmira. Heard of it?" Christine says angrily and gives Tony some pictures.**

"That's where Yinsen was from." Bruce said, quietly.

**"When were these taken?"**

**"Yesterday."**

**"I didn't approve any shipment."**

**"Well your company did."**

**"Well, I'm not my company" Tony says and walks out of the building to find Obadiah.**

"She really likes to make you angry." Loki said.

**"Have you seen these pictures? What's going on in Gulmira?" Tony asks**

**"Tony, Tony. You can't afford to be this naive."Obadiah says.**

**"You know what? I was naive before, when they said, 'Here's the line. We don't cross it. This is how we do business.' If we're double-dealing under the table... Are we?"**

**"Let's take a picture, come on picture time." Obadiah said and pulled Tony to his side. "Tony. Who do you think locked you out? I was the one who filed the injunction against you. It was the only way I could protect you." He said and walked away. Christine is still lingering behind Tony. He watches Obadiah leave with a look of anger and betrayal on his face.**

"That guy is a dick." Bruce said. Wanda looked over at Tony and realized, that though it may have been his company's bombs, he, more than likely was not the one to give the weapons to the people that killed her parents.

"Do you know how long this had been going on before this all happened?" Steve asked.

"I can only assume it started when we took over the company after dad died." Tony said.


	6. You owe me a plane

**Tony is sitting on a couch in his lab watching the news. He is fiddling with one of his gauntlets. "The 15-mile hike to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be described as a descent into hell, into a modern day Heart of Darkness. Simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages have been driven from their homes, displaced from their lands by warlords emboldened by a new-found power. Villagers have been forced to take shelter in whatever crude dwellings they can find in the ruins of other villages, or here in the remnants of an old Soviet smelting plant." The newscaster lady says.**

"Jesus, that's terrible." Steve remarked.

Everyone else silently agreed.

**"Recent violence has been attributed to a group of foreign fighters referred to by locals as the Ten Rings. As you can see, these men are heavily armed and on a mission." She says.**

"To essentially rule over the middle east." Bruce muttered.

**Tony gives his screwdriver a violent twist.**

**"A mission that could prove fatal to anyone who stands in their way."**

**Tony gets up off the couch.**

**"With no political will or international pressure-"**

**Tony walks over to the counter and puts his screwdriver in a can.**

**"There is little to no hope for these refugees."**

**Tony looks to the side and raises the hand holding the gauntlet.**

**"Around me, a woman begging for news on her husband, who was kidnapped by insurgents-"**

"Oh my God." Pepper whispered. She never knew much about the 10 rings, Tony never talked about it, but these men were terrible people.

**Tony shoots at something in the lab and his arm is knocked back from the force. A light fixture falls from the ceiling.**

**"either forced to join their militia... Desperate refugees clutch yellowed photographs, holding them up to anyone who will stop."**

**Tony straightens his posture and walks forward.**

"I really don't like that look in your eyes." Bruce said.

**"A child's simple question, 'Where are my mother and father?'"**

Wanda looked away, being vividly reminded of her own parents.

**Tony stops in front of three panels of reflective glass, he turns and looks at it.**

**"There's very little hope for these refugees. refugees who can only wonder who, if anyone, will help." He looks at his reflection with a grimace, he shoots at the center panel, then the left panel then turns and shoots at the right panel and walks away.**

Pepper moved to hug Tony. "Tony-" Rhodey tried.

"Don't, it was a long time ago. Don't say anything." Tony said tightly.

Everyone just turned away from him, except Pepper who wouldn't let go of him.

**The scene switches to Tony getting suited up. Then it cuts to him flying.**

"I like this better." Steve mumbled, the few people that could hear him (Peter and Bucky.) nodded in agreement.

**In Gulmira there are bombs going off and the terrorists are killing.**

**"Hurry it up, put the women in the trucks. Stack the weapons here. Clear all the houses. That one there, faster, faster." A man says.**

**A family tries to get their son away.** **"Grab that dog! Put him with the others."**

**A little boy tries to run to his father.** **"What the hell is this?" They shove the boy away and shove his father to the ground and stand over him then a man starts kicking him, a woman screams in the background.**

"No!" Everybody yelled. 

"You better be getting there soon, Stark." Natasha said.

**"Shoot this dog. You're all incompetent."**

**"Turn your head."**

**Then Tony lands.**

"Wow, you have great timing." Clint said.

**A man starts shooting at him, Tony punches him then starts firing at the others. He goes to fire at the ones behind him but they're holding guns to civilians heads. He puts his hands down and targets the terrorists. The little boy runs to his father. Tony walks over to where the last guy is and grabs him through the wall and throws him on the ground in front of the civilians.**

"Shoot him!." Scott yelled.

**Tony flies up. "He's all yours."**

"Never mind, let them do it." Scott said.

**He says, then flies away. The people glare at the man on the ground.**

"I wish they showed the people beating that guy up." MJ said.

Peter just stared at her.

"What?" She asked. "He deserved it."

**Tony flies and locates his weapons, he gets blown out of the sky and lands at the place the weapons are located. A tank is shooting at him and he blows it up. People start shooting at him, he flies up and notices the Jericho missile, he blows it up. He flies away and gets noticed by the military.**

"You gave everyone quite the scare there, Tony." Rhodey commented. Tony just laughed.

**"What the hell was that? Were we cleared to go in there?" A man asks.**

**"No, they were using human shields. We never got the green light." a different man answers.**

**" Put me through to State. They're going to be all over this." "**

**We got a bogey"**

**"Wasn't air force!" Someone yells.**

**"We got CIA on the line?"**

**"I've got Langley on the line. They want to know if it's us."**

**"No, it is defiantly not us, sir!"**

**"It wasn't Navy."**

**"Wasn't marines."**

**"I need answers! Can I please get eyes on target?"**

**"Negative, negative."**

**"Cannot identify."**

**"Get me Colonel Rhodes from Weapons Development down here now!"**

"Oh dear god. Something tells me this won't end well." Maria said.

"That would depend on who you ask. If you ask me, I'd say it was fine, nobody died. If you asked anyone else... well, you'd get a different answer." Tony said.

**Rhodey enters the room. "We ran an ID check and cross-referenced with all known databases. We have nothing." A man says to him.**

**"Any high altitude surveillance in the region?" Rhodey asks.**

**"We got an AWAC and a Global Hawk in the area."**

**"So this thing just appeared out of nowhere? How come it didn't show up on the radar?" Rhodey asks.**

**"Got a minimal radar cross-section, sir."**

**"Is it stealth?"**

**"No sir, its tiny. We think its an unmanned aerial vehicle."**

"Defiantly not unmanned." Tony muttered.

**"Colonel, what are we dealing with here?"**

"Me." Tony said quietly, but Rhodey heard him and slapped him on the back of the head.

**"Let me make a call." Rhodey says and walks to a secluded area.**

**Tony is still flying and we hear a ringing noise coming from the suit. "Hello." Tony asks.**

**"Tony?" "Who is this?"**

**"It's Rhodes."**

**"Sorry, hello?"**

**"I said, its Rhodes."**

"Are you taunting him?" Quill asked.

"No. I just couldn't hear him that well." Tony said.

**"Speak up, please." Tony says.**

"Now I'm taunting him." He said.

**"What the hell is that noise?" Rhodey asks.**

**"Oh, yeah. I'm driving with the top down."**

**"Yeah, well I need your help right now."**

**"It's funny how that works huh?"**

"Oof." Shuri said.

**"Yeah. Speaking of funny, we've got a weapons depot that was just blown up a few clicks from where you were being held captive"**

**"Well, that's a hot spot. Sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you, huh?"**

**"Why do you sound out of breath, Tony?"**

**"I'm not, I was just jogging in the canyon."**

"You are a terrible liar." Rocket said.

"I'm not. I just cant lie to Rhodey... or Pepper for that matter." Tony said.

**"I thought you were driving."**

**"Right I was driving to the canyon, where I'm going to jog."**

"Just digging yourself a deeper hole." Quill said.

**"You sure you don't have any tech in that area I should know about?"**

**"Nope"**

**"Bogey spotted!" Someone in the same room as Rhodey yells.**

**"Whiplash 1 coming in hot!" Someone else yells.**

**"Okay good, 'cause I'm staring at one right now and it's about to get blown to kingdom come." Two planes appear behind Tony.**

"That's not good." Bruce mumbled.

**"That's my exit." Tony says and turns over to the left. The planes follow him.**

**"Ballroom, this is whiplash 1. I've got the bogey in my sights." A pilot says.**

**"Whiplash 1 what is it?"**

"I am a 'he' not an 'it'." Tony said with mock anger.

**Rhodey asks. "I've got no idea." The pilot says.**

**"Do you have radio contact?" Someone else asks.**

**"Non-responsive, sir."**

**"Then you are clear to engage."**

"Oh my god." Pepper said, panicked.

**Inside tony's suit red words that say 'engage supersonic' appear. "Hit it." He says, then flies really fast.**

**"Bogey just went supersonic. I got a lock." A pilot says. Then starts shooting at Tony.**

**"Inbound missile." JARVIS says.**

**"Flares." Tony commands and then starts shooting flares. The missile blew up.**

**"Bogey deployed flares." A pilot says.**

**Tony starts falling out of the sky but steadies himself after a few seconds. One of the planes starts shooting at him.**

**"Deploy flaps." Tony commands and then falls back.**

**"Holy-" One of the pilots says.**

"Wait, where did you go?" Bucky asked.

"Somewhere I probably shouldn't have." Tony responded.

Rhodey snorted.

Steve looked confused, wasn't he 'where he shouldn't have been' this whole time?

**"That thing just jumped off the radar, sir." Someone says.**

**"The sat visual has been lost."**

**"No way that's a UAV." A pilot says.**

**"what is it?"**

**"I can't see anything." The pilot responds.**

**"Whatever it it, it just bought the farm."**

**"I think the bogey's been handled sir." Rhodey's phone starts ringing. He picks it up to see Tony calling, the name used is 'the starkster."**

"Really? The Starkster?" Clint laughed.

A few others giggled as well.

"Hey, that is all him not me." Tony said and pointedly looked at Rhodey.

Rhodey glared at him, but there was no heat behind it.

**"Hello?" He asks.**

**"Hi Rhodey, its me." Tony says.**

**"It's who?"**

**"I'm sorry, it is me, you asked, what you're asking about is me."**

**"No, see, this isn't a game. You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone. You understand that?"**

**"This is not a piece of equipment. I'm in it. It's a suit. It's me!" Tony says, panicked.**

**"Rhodey, you got anything for me?" Someone asks.**

**"Mark your position, return back to base." Someone else says.**

**"Roger that, ballroom." A pilot says. One of the planes flies off and Tony is revealed to be hanging onto the bottom of it.**

"So that's what you meant when you said 'somewhere you shouldn't have." Steve said in realization.

**"On your belly! It looks like a... man!" The other pilot shouts.**

"Well at least one of them knew I was a person." Tony mumbled.

**"Shake him off. Roll, roll!" He says and the pilot rolls the plane.**

**Tony flies off and hits the other plane, ripping one of its wings off.**

**"I'm hit! I'm hit!" The pilot of the aforementioned plane says. The plane starts falling.**

**"Punch out! Punch out!" The other pilot says.**

**The man ejects himself, then his plane blows up. The man starts falling.**

**"Whiplash one down." Someone says.**

**"Whiplash two, do you see a chute?"**

**"Negative! No chute, no chute."**

"This is not good." T'Challa said. "Please tell me that the pilot is fine." Bruce said.

"Pilot's fine."

**The pilot is still falling, trying to eject his parachute. "My chutes jammed!"**

**Tony starts flying after him. "Sir, I've got visual on the bogey."**

**"Whiplash Two, reengage. If you get a clear shot, you take it."**

"Are all Americans this dense, can he not see that Tony is trying to save the poor guy from plummeting to his death?" Shuri asked.

T'Challa gave her a look.

"Okay I could have phrased that better, but still!"

**"Major, we don't even know what we're shooting at. Call off the raptors." Rhodey says, trying to stop him.**

**"** **That thing just took out an F- inside a legal no fly zone! Whiplash Two, if you have a clear shot, take it!" The 'Major' says.**

**"You've been reengaged. Execute evasive maneuver." JARVIS says.**

**"Keep going." Tony says and flies faster and successfully un- jammed the mans chute.**

**"Good chute! Good chute!"**

There were a few sighs of relief at this.

**"Tony, you still there?" Rhodey asks.**

**"Hey, thanks." Tony replies.**

**"Oh, my God you crazy son of a bitch! You owe me a plane, you know that right?"**

**"Well technically he hit me."**

"No you hit him but it was his fault." Rhodey corrected.

**"Now are you gonna come by and see what I'm working on?" Tony asks.**

**"No, no, no, no, no, no, the less I know, the better."**

"Well, you're not wrong but you found out anyway." Tony said, remembering how much danger he put Pepper in by asking her to help him.

**"Now what am I supposed to tell the press?" Rhodey asks.**

"Training exercise?" Ned asked.

**"Training exercise, isn't that the usual BS?" Tony asks.**

"Huh."

**"It's not that simple." Rhodey says.**

"No, it shouldn't be that simple, but it is that simple." MJ Corrected.

Rhodey gave her a look.

MJ shrugged, defensively.

"She's right, you know." Natasha told him.

**The scene flips to Rhodey talking to a group of reporters. "An unfortunate training exercise involving an F-22 raptor occurred yesterday. I am pleased to report that the pilot was not injured." Obadiah is shown watching this happen on TV.As for the unexpected turn of events on the ground in Gulmira, it is still unclear who or what intervened, but I can assure you that the United States government was not involved."**

"I don't like the look in Obadiah's eyes." Gamora muttered, so only the rest of the guardians could hear.

They all nodded in agreement.

**Pepper is shown walking down the stairs to Tony's lab. "Hey," Tony says, followed by several grunts of pain.**

**"It is a tight fit sir. Sir the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt." JARVIS says.**

**"Be gentle, this is my first time."**

"You do know what that sounds like out of context, right?" Quill asked, giggling a little. Tony just sighed.

**Tony is shown standing on a machine that is trying to take his suit off. "I designed this to come off so-ow- hey. I should really be able to-"**

"A lot of your tech has come a really long way since then." Natasha said with a small (Very small) smile

**"Please try not to move, sir." JARVIS says.**

**"What's going on here?" Pepper asks, softly. Tony turns his head.**

**"Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."**

"What is the worst thing she's caught you doing?" Bucky asked.

"We never speak of it." Tony and Pepper said simultaneously.

"Damn, now I wanna know even more." Bucky whispered.

**"Are those bullet holes." Pepper asks, horrified.**

Real Pepper smacked him.

**The scene switches to Afghanistan. A few SUV's pull up to where Raza is standing with a few other men. Obadiah and a few security guards get out of the first car.**

Everyone, except for those who knew what happened, gasped. Tony looked away from the screen Natasha caught a glimpse of hurt in his eyes.

"That bastard!" Clint shouted.

Nobody disagreed, but nobody bothered to say anything more, Clint was pretty spot on anyway.

**Obadiah walks toward Raza. "Welcome." Raza says.**

**Obadiah turns to look at the large burn mark on the side of his face.**

**"Compliments of Tony Stark." He explains and gestures toward it.**

**"If you'd killed him when you were supposed to, you'd still have a face." Obadiah says.**

**"You gave trinkets to kill a prince." Raza says.**

Tony flinches, he knew what Obadiah did but that doesn't make it any easier hearing him say it out loud.

"He paid to have you killed?" Steve whispered.

"Again I say: that bastard!" Clint yelled.

**"Show me the weapon." Obadiah demands.**

**"Come. Leave your guards outside." Raza says. They start to walk into the cave. Inside the cave we see the Mark 1 iron man suit finally assembled correctly.**

"Oh my god, they did it." Scott said, worriedly.

**"His escape bore unexpected fruit." Raza explains.**

**"So this is how he did it." Obadiah muttered when he saw the suit.**

**"This is only a first, crude effort. Stark has perfected his design." Raza continues.**

"I haven't perfected it, I've improved it and will continue to improve it." Tony corrected.

**"He has made a masterpiece of death." Raza says.**

Tony flinched.

**"A man with a dozen of these can rule all of Asia. And you dream of Stark's throne." Raza continues.**

**"We have a common enemy. *He moves to sit down* If we are still in business, I will give you these designs as a gift."**

"Like he'd ever fall for that." Fury scoffed.

**Obadiah is staring at the hole in the chest of the suit, he runs his fingers along the side.**

"Holy shit, he knows." Peter said.

"This is not good, this is very not good!" Quill yelled.

"I am groot."

"I hope he does too." Rocket said to Groot.

"Wait- what did Groot say?" Bruce asked.

"He said that 'I hope that man gets punished for his actions.'.. well to put it nicely." Loki responded before any of the guardians could.

"You speak Groot too?" Gamora asked. Did all Asgardians speak it?

Loki smirked.

**"I hope you'll repay me with a gift of iron soldiers." Raza says as he raises his glass.**

**Obadiah walked toward him. He rested his arm on Obadiah's shoulder and turned on a devise that emitted a high pitched noise. Raza started breathing heavily and the veins in his head started popping out.**

**"This is the only gift you shall receive. Technology, t's always been your Achilles' heel in this part of the world. Don't worry. It'll only last for 15 minutes. That's the least of your problems."**

"Wait, I'm lost. What did he do to him?" Ned asked.

"Short-term paralysis." Clint muttered.

**"Crate up the armor and the rest of it." Obadiah says to his guards as he exits the tent. "Alright let's just finish up here." He says and gets into the car, behind him a bunch of people got shot. Obadiah is on the phone now. Set up Sector 16 underneath the arc reactor, and I'm going to want this data masked. Recruit our top engineers. I want a prototype right away." He says.**


	7. I am Iron Man

**Pepper walks into Tony's lab where Tony is seen repairing his suit. "Hey. You busy? You mind if I send you on an errand? I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip. *He hands her something* This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading." He says.**

**"And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" Pepper asks.**

**"Same drill, they've been dealing under that table and I'm gonna stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them." He answers.**

**"Tony, you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again."**

**"There is nothing except this. There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else." Tony says, getting angry.**

'He's becoming obsessive.' Several people thought.

**"Is that so? Well then I quit." Pepper says, tosses the device on the table and starts to walk away.**

**"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?" Tony asks.**

**"You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of it." Pepper says.**

A few people looked torn at that. On one hand Tony is taking responsibility for his actions by destroying his weapons but on the other hand Pepper is right to not want to see her boss/ friend die because of it. 

**"I shouldn't be alive, unless it was for a reason." Tony starts.**

Bruce was reminded of his and Tony's conversation on the helli-carrier. a few days ago. 

_'so you're saying that the Hulk- The Other Guy saved my life? That's nice, that's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?'_

_'I guess we'll find out'_

**"I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right." He finishes.**

"One of the rare moments we'll ever see you being serious." Natasha said.

"Well when the situation calls for it." Tony said half joking.

**Pepper walked back over and picked the devise up from where she tossed it. "You're all I have too, you know."**

A few people smiled at that. 

**Pepper is shown getting out of an elevator, she walks into Tony's office. She uses the devise Tony gave her to log into his computer. 'Warning: security breach' pops up on the screen, a few seconds later 'access granted' appears on the screen. A large number of files pop up. Pepper goes through each of them. When she gets to the 3rd one, pictures of the Mark on appear on screen.**

**"Sector 16? What are you up to Obadiah?" Pepper asks herself.**

"This is so intense." Ned whispers to Peter. 

**She opens a new file and the video The Ten Rings shot of Tony starts playing. Pepper types 'translate' into the computer.**

**"You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark. As you can see, Obadiah Stane..." One of the men starts.**

**"Oh my God." Pepper whispers, horrified.**

"Oh my God is right." Hope said. 

**"... your deception and lies will cost you dearly. The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up." The man finishes. Pepper copied everything onto the flash drive. Then**

**Obadiah walks into the room. "So, what are we going to do about this?" He asks. Pepper gasps and looks at him.**

"Oh no." Natasha whispered.

Tony moved closer to Pepper. 

**Obadiah pours a glass of some type of alcohol. "I know what you're going through, Pepper."**

"No, you really don't." Wanda said, angrily. 

**He sniffs the bottle. "Tony. He always gets the good stuff, doesn't he?" He asks. Pepper smiled and nodded, she covered up the flash drive with a newspaper and clicked on the screen saver. A picture of Tony's car popped up. Obadiah walked over to her.**

"He's getting suspicious." Clint said. 

**"I was so happy when he came home."**

"Liar." Bruce said. 

**"It was like we got him back from the dead. Now I realize, well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself in that cave. Breaks my heart."**

**"Well, he's a complicated person. He's been through a lot. I think he'll be all right."**

**"You are a very rare woman."**

"Is he... flirting with you?" Maria asked, though she already knew the answer.

**"Tony, doesn't know how lucky he is."**

"Didn't then. Do now." Tony said. 

**"Thanks." Pepper says and goes to get up.**

**"I'd better get back there." She says and picks up the newspaper, unplugs the flash drive and grabs her purse.**

**"Is that today's paper?" Obadiah asks.**

"He's not suspicious anymore, he knows!" Scott yelled. 

**"Yes." Pepper responds. Obadiah walks over to her and grabs the paper.**

**"Do you mind?"**

**"Not at all."**

**"Puzzle."**

**"Of course." She says and starts to walk away again.**

**"take care." Pepper looks at the flash drive in her hands. Obadiah walks back over to the computer and sees 'download complete' on the screen. He grabs at his head.**

"Oh no." T'Challa said. 

**Pepper is walking down some stairs. Coulson is seen sitting in one of the chairs.**

**"Ms Potts? We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?" He asks.**

**"Nope, right now. Come with me." She says, angrily.**

**"Right now?"**

**"We're going to have it right now. Walk with me."**

**"Okay."**

**"I am going to give you the meeting of your life! Your office."**

"Poor Coulson." Natasha said.

"Pepper you can be terrifying when you want to be."

"It's an acquired skill when you have to deal with this one." pepper said and pointed at Tony. 

**A man in a lab coat is on the phone and surrounded by other men in lab coats. "Absolutely we're... *He sees Obadiah coming* I'm gonna have to call you back," He says and hangs up. Mr. Stane? Sir, we've explored what you've asked us, and it seems as though there's a little hiccup. Actually..." The man starts.**

**"A hiccup." Obadiah interrupts.**

**"Yes, to power the suit, sir, the technology actually doesn't exist."**

"It exits alright." Tony said. 

**"Wait, wait, wait. The technology? William, here is the technology. I've asked you to simply make it smaller." Obadiah says.**

**"Okay, sir, and that's what we're trying to do, but honestly, it's impossible." The man, who we now know as William, says.**

"But it's not though." Shuri said. 

**"Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!" Obadiah roars.**

**"Well I'm sorry, I'm not Tony stark." William says.**

"Poor William." Bruce said, a frown on his face. 

**Tony is walking in his living room, the phone is ringing he picks it up and answers it. The same high pitched noise was heard again and Tony froze.**

"Son of a bitch!" Happy shouted.

A few people were surprised at his outburst seeing as he is usually calm and collected.

"Aw, Happy you do care." Tony said. 

**"Tony? Tony are you there? hello?" Pepper asks from the other end of the line.**

**Obadiah leans him back onto the couch. "Breathe. Easy, easy." He holds the device out so Tony could see it. "You remember this one, right? It's a shame the government didn't approve it."**

"Your government draws the line in very odd places." T'Challa commented. 

**"There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis." Obadiah walks in front of him and grabs his chin. "Tony, when I ordered the hit on you." Tony's eyes widened in fear at the revelation, beside him Obadiah pulls out a devise. "I was worried that I was killing the golden goose." He puts the devise up to the arc reactor. "But you see, it was just *Tony makes a choking noise as the arc reactor gets disconnected.* fate that you survived that. You had one last golden egg to give. You really think, that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?"**

"Uh yeah..." Quill said. "Isn't that part of having an idea... that its your idea?" 

**"Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?"**

"I don't think these two inventions are comparable by any means, seeing as we are not in the middle of a war." Steve said, angrily.

**Tony gasps as the arc reactor was pulled from his chest. Obadiah takes the arc reactor in his hands. "Oh, it's beautiful. Tony, this is your Ninth Symphony. What a masterpiece. Look at that. This is your legacy. A new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands. The right hands. I wish you could've seen my prototype. *He puts the arc reactor in a box* It's not as... Well, not as conservative as yours. Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would have preferred that she lived."**

Pepper growled at him, actually growled. Tony hugged Pepper, assuring himself that she was there and she was okay. 

**Rhodey is driving and he's on the phone with Pepper. "What do you mean he paid to have Tony killed?... Pepper slow down, why would Obadiah...Okay where's Tony now?" He asks.**

**"I don't know he's not answering his phone." Pepper responds.**

**"Please go over there and make sure everything's okay. Thank you, Rhodey." she finishes and hangs up.**

**"I know a shortcut." She says to Coulson. Rhodey turns around and drives to Tony's house.**

"Wait a minute, when I got there you were on the floor in your lab, but Obadiah left you on the couch, how the hell did you get downstairs paralyzed and dying?" Rhodey asked.

"I threw myself around my house a bit." Tony said.

**Tony is seen leaning his head against the wall of an elevator. He stumbles out of it and struggles to get to his lab. He looks over at his desk and sees Peppers gift.**

"You weren't kidding when you said it saved your life." Pepper said softly. 

**He falls to the floor and crawls over to his desk. He props himself onto a bin and tries to reach for it but fails. He falls back down.**

"Don't give up now." Bruce said.

**Dummy picked up the arc reactor and lowered it down to Tony. Tony took it from him. "Good boy." He says and smashes the glass onto the floor. Obadiah is staring at the suit he built. He walks toward it and puts the arc reactor in.**

"That thing looked huge." Hope said. 

**Rhodey is upstairs in Tony's house. "Tony Tony? Tony? Tony? *He walks downstairs*Tony? *He sees Tony lying on the floor by his desk* Tony!" Rhodey says and runs over to him. "Tony? You okay?" He asks.**

**"Where's Pepper?" Tony asks.**

"Aw, Tony you do care." Pepper said, mimicking Tony from earlier.

**"She's fine. She's with five agents, they're about to arrest Obadiah." Rhodey responds.**

**"That's not gonna be enough."**

"It wasn't enough." Tony sighed.

**Four cars pull up outside of the factory. Pepper and Coulson get out of the first one. Pepper opens the front door. "Section 16. Section 16. There it is." She says and tries to get in. "My key's not working, its not opening the door." Someone hands Coulson a device. "Oh, wow! What's that? It's, like, a little device? It's, like, a thing that's going to pick the lock?" Pepper asks.**

**"You might wanna take a few steps back." Coulson says. Pepper walks away and covers her ears. The device creates a small explosion that opens the door. Obadiah hears the explosion and looks toward the door. He powers up the suit.**

"Oh boy." Scott breathed out. 

**Tony is seen getting into his own suit.**

**"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen." Rhodey says.**

**"Not bad huh. Let's do it." Tony says as he shoots his previously destroyed car out of the way.**

**"You need me to do anything else?" Rhodey asks. Tony puts the face plate down.**

**"Keep the skies clear." He says and flies through the hole he made earlier.**

**Rhodey takes notice of another suit. "Next time baby."**

"I mean, you did technically get to use one, even if it wasn't in the way I wanted you to at first." Tony said.

Natasha smirked, remembering what happen when Rhodey first used the suit. 

**Pepper, Coulson and the other four SHIELD agents are seen walking through sector 16 when they come across the mark 1 suit. "Looks like you were right, he was building a suit." Coulson says.**

**"I thought it'd be bigger." Pepper says.**

"That's because it is." Tony said tightly. 

**Pepper walks away and notices a bunch of cables hanging from the ceiling. One of the agents notices blueprints on a computer. Pepper is walking through a bunch of chains. Behind the chains she sees two glowing blue eyes, the eyes move up higher. She screams and runs.**

**"Take him out." One of the agents says and they all start shooting at him. Obadiah swipes them away and continues chasing Pepper.**

**Tony is seen flying to the factory.** **"How do you think the mark 1 chest piece is gonna hold up?" He asks.**

**"The suit's at 48% power and falling, sir. That chest piece was never designed for sustained flight." JARVIS says.**

"How many more things are going to go wrong." Bruce said, exasperated. 

**"Keep me posted." Tony says.**

**"Pepper!" Tony says.**

**"Tony! Tony, are you okay? - I'm fine. How are... Obadiah, he's gone insane!"**

**"I Know."**

**"He built a suit!"**

**"Get out of there." Obadiah comes up through the ground.**

**"Where do you think your going?" He asks Pepper.**

**"Your services are no longer required." He says and aims his fist at her.**

"If he hurts her, so help me-" Rhodey said in a warning tone.

"You'll turn this car around?" Ned asked.

Clint and Scott snickered a bit, that was a line they used on their kids a few times.

**Tony comes into view then. "Stane!" He yells, the tackles him into the ground. A bunch of car crashes occur. Obadiah picks one of them up. "Put 'em down!" Tony yells.**

**"Collateral damage, Tony!" Obadiah yells.**

"No, you just picked them up!" Clint yells. 

**"Divert power to chest RT." Tony says, the shoots a repulsor beam out of his chest. Obadiah drops the car and falls over, Tony catches the car.**

**"Power reduced to 19%" JARVIS says.**

**The lady driving the car slams on the breaks. "Lady!" Tony shouts. Tony gets stuck underneath the car, then lifts it off of himself. Obadiah gets up and jumps over to Tony, he rips someone off of a motor cycle and hits Tony with it.**

**"For 30 years I've been holding you up." He picks Tony up and throws him on the ground and steps on him.**

**"I built this company from nothing!" He yells.**

"That's not true." Steve said, slowly.

"He's insane Steve, nothing he say's is going to make sense." Natasha said.

**He picks Tony back up. "Nothing is going to stand in my way." He throws Tony into a semi-truck. "Least of all, you." He says then blows the truck up. Tony starts falling but catches himself. "Impressive! You've upgraded your armor! I've made some upgrades of my own!" He says, then starts flying.**

**"Sir, it appears his suit can fly." JARVIS says.**

**"Duly noted, take me to maximum altitude." Tony says and starts flying higher.**

"What are you planning?" Bruce asked.

"You'll see."

**"With only 15% power, the odds of reaching that..." JARVIS says.**

**"I know the math! Do it!"**

"Oh my god, Tony, you're crazy." Rhodey said. 

**"Sir you're not gonna believe this but that thing is back." A soldier says.**

**"Get me major Allen, scramble the jets." Another soldier says.**

**"Not necessary, people just a training exercise." Rhodey says and puts his hand over the phone.**

"Well, at least one thing went right." Scott mumbled. 

**"13% power, sir." JARVIS says.**

**"Climb."**

**"11%"**

**"Keep going."**

**Obadiah's suit is starting to acquire a thin layer of ice.**

"The icing problem." Bruce realizes. 

**"7% power."**

**"Just leave it on the screen, stop telling me." Tony says, impatiently.Obadiah reaches up to grab Tony's leg.**

**"You had a great idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!"**

**"How'd you solve the icing problem?" Tony asks.**

Everyone, except Bruce, made noises of realization. 

**"Icing problem?" Obadiah's suit starts shutting down.**

**"Might wanna look into it." Tony says and knocks him on the head, he starts falling.**

"Funnily enough, that didn't kill him." Tony said.

"How!?"

**"2%." JARVIS says, then Tony starts falling, catching himself every few seconds.**

**"We are now running on emergency backup power." JARVIS says.**

**"Whoa." Tony lands on the roof of his factory.**

**"Potts!"**

**"Tony! Oh, my God, are you okay?"**

**"I'm almost out of power. I've got to get out of this thing. I'll be right there." Tony says and starts to dismantle the suit. Obadiah appears behind him.**

"Oh come on!" Clint shouted. 

**"Nice try!" He says and raises his arm to punch him but Tony ducks, then holds out his hand to shoot at him, only to realize the gauntlet isn't there. Obadiah smacks him and he goes flying. Tony runs toward Obadiah and punches him, Obadiah starts squeezing him.**

**"Weapons status." Tony chokes out.**

**"Repulsors offline. Missiles offline." JARVIS says.**

**"Flares!" Tony says and then starts shooting flares. Obadiah drops him.**

**"Very clever, Tony." Tony is shown hiding behind something.**

**"Potts." He whispers.**

**"Tony!"**

**"This isn't working. We're going to have to overload the reactor and blast the roof."**

"Oh my God." Quill groaned. 

**"Well, how are you going to do that?"You're going to do it. Go to the central console, open up all the circuits. When I get clear of the roof, I'll let you know. You're going to hit the master bypass button. It's going to fry everything up here."**

**Pepper starts walking into the building. "Okay, I'm going in now." she says, shakily.**

**"Make sure you wait till I clear the roof. I'll buy you some time." Tony moves from his hiding spot. Pepper starts pulling all of the switches.**

"that's a lot of switches." Scott commented. 

**Tony jumps on Obadiah's back and pulls something off of his suit. "This looks important." He says. Obadiah's screen goes blank, he throws Tony onto the ceiling above the arc reactor. Obadiah opens his suit.**

**"I've never had a taste for this sort of thing but I must admit, I'm deeply enjoying the suit! You finally outdid yourself, you'd have made your father proud."**

Tony cringed at the screen.

"Why does he always have to mention your father?" Clint asked.

"Is he like manipulating you?" Scott asked. 

**Tony tries to stand up. "Its ready Tony, get off the roof." Pepper yells.**

**Obadiah shoots out all the glass, Tony falls through and hangs onto the metal bar.**

**"Tony!" Pepper yells.**

**"How ironic, Tony! Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!"**

**"Pepper!"**

**"And now I'm gonna kill you with it." Obadiah tries to shoot him, but misses. "You ripped out my targeting system."**

**"Time to hit the button!"**

"You'll die if she does!" Rocket said.

**"You told me not to!" She yells.**

**"Hold still you little prick." Obadiah tries to shoot him, but misses again.**

**"Just do it!"**

**"You'll die!" Obadiah shoots again. Tony falls, now holding onto the bar with 1 hand.**

**"Push it!" Pepper pushes the button and runs for cover. The explosion throws Tony to the other end of the roof, Obadiah is being electrocuted. The explosion shot a beam into the sky and caused a lot of building to lose power.**

"That is what I call an explosion." Rocket said. People subtly moved away from him. "What?" He asked.

"I am groot."

"What do you mean I cant say things like that."

"I am groot."

"I don't care if it makes people uncomfortable."

**Obadiah falls into the arc reactor and it blows up. Tony is lying on the roof with his eyes closed, the arc reactor is flickering.**

"You seem to have a thing for suicidal moves, Tony." Steve said, worriedly. 

**Rhodey is shown talking to a group of reporters. "You've all received the official statement of what occurred at Stark Industries last night. There have been unconfirmed reports that a robotic prototype malfunctioned and caused damage to the arc reactor. Fortunately, a member of Tony Stark's personal security staff..." He says.**

"Is this that other press conference?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know why you're asking, but yes." Tony answered.

**The camera shows Tony reading a newspaper while Pepper takes a bandage off of his nose. "'Iron Man.' That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it. I mean, it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold-titanium alloy, but it's kind of evocative, the imagery, anyway."**

"Only you, stark, only you." Clint sighed. 

**Coulson walks up to him and hands him a stack of cards. "Here's your alibi." He says. "You were on your yacht." He explains.**

**"Yeah."**

**"We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests."**

**"See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper and me alone on the island."**

Shuri sighed. They were being so oblivious!

**"That's what happened." Coulson said.**

**"Alright." Tony starts flipping through the cards.**

**"Just read it, word for word." Coulson says.**

**"There's nothing about Stane in here."**

**"That's being handled, he's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record."**

**"But what about the whole cover story that it's a bodyguard? He's my... I mean, is that... That's kind of flimsy, don't you think?"**

"Well, that part was flimsy, that Christine girl refused to believe it." Tony said.

**"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr. Stark. Just stick to the official statement, and soon, this will all be behind you. You've got 90 seconds." Then he starts to walk away. Pepper walks after him.**

**"Agent Coulson? I just wanted to say thank you very much for all of your help." She says.**

**"That's what we do. You'll be hearing from us." He says.**

**"From the strategic homeland-"**

**"Just call us SHIELD." He says and walks away.**

"There it is." Clint said with a smile. 

**"Right. Let's get this show on the road." Pepper says and picks up Tony's jacket.**

**"You know, it's actually not that bad. Even I don't think I'm Iron Man." Tony says and walks over to her.**

**"You're not Iron Man."**

"But he is though." Peter said.

**"Am so."**

**"You're not."**

**"All right, suit yourself. You know, if I were Iron Man, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She'd be a wreck, 'cause she'd always be worrying that I was going to die, yet so proud of the man I'd become. She'd be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more crazy about me. Tell me you never think about that night."**

**"What night."**

**"You know."**

**"Are you talking about the night that we danced and went up on the roof, and then you went downstairs to get me a drink, and you left me there, by myself? Is that the night you're talking about? Thought so. Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"**

"Well, at least now I know why you left." Pepper sighed. 

**"Yes, that will be all, Miss Potts." He said.**

**"And now Mr Stark has prepared a statement, he will not be taking any questions." Rhodey says.**

**"Thank you. Been a while since I was in front of you. I figure I'll stick to the cards this time. There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and the rooftop..." Tony starts.**

**But Christine interrupted.**

**"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you..."**

Everyone groaned, this lady was getting on their nerves.

**"I know that it's confusing. It is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations, or insinuate that I'm a superhero."**

**"I never said you were a superhero"**

**"Didn't? Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic. I'm just not the hero type. Clearly."**

Steve cringed, being reminded of what he said on the heli-carrier. 

_'you know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero.'_

**"With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public." Rhodey came up behind him.**

**"Just stick to the cards, man."**

"I wish you would've stuck to the cards." Fury sighed. 

**"Yeah, okay. Yeah. The truth is... I am Iron Man." The room erupts in chaos.**

"Would've made it a lot easier if you just stuck to the cards." Fury said. 

**Tony enters his house. "Jarvis." He calls.**

**"Welcome home sir." JARVIS says.**

**"'I am Iron Man' You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet."**

**"Who the hell are you?"**

**"Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."**

**"Huh"**

**"I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative."**

"Well-" Tony said. "That was uh, yeah."


End file.
